The founder of the Electors Trust charity Larry Lessig has claimed that up to 20 GOP affiliated electoral college voters plan on voting against Donald Trump in an attempt to block his confirmation as president.
Lessig, who is also a Harvard Law professor, told POLITICO that “whether an elector ultimately votes his or her conscience will depend in part upon whether there are enough doing the same.”
“We now believe there are more than half the number needed to change the result seriously considering making that vote,” he continued.
Lessig founded and runs the anti-Trump ‘Electors Trust,’ which provides “provides free and strictly confidential legal support to any Elector who wishes to vote their conscience.”
The professor’s claims go against reports from the Republican Whip Operation, designed to keep Republican members of the electoral college loyal to Trump, that only Texas elector Chris Suprun plans on defying this instruction.
In an op-ed in the New York Times, Suprun said he would not cast his vote for Trump as he “lacks the foreign policy experience and demeanour needed to be commander in chief,” adding that “electors of conscience can still do the right thing for the good of the country.”
Lessig claims that he has had contact from 20 Republican members of the Electoral College considering the possibility of voting against Trump, although it remains unclear whether this means they would vote for Hillary Clinton or a Republican alternative, as well as the legality of voting against Trump in the states that he won.
All 538 electoral college votes will be cast and ratified on December 19. To block a Trump presidency, 37 electors would have to vote against him, with Trump having won 306 electoral college votes, and 270 being the necessary number to become president.
You can follow Ben Kew on Facebook, on Twitter at @ben_kew, or email him at bkew@breitbart.com
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