A federal appeals court in Seattle has rejected an effort by two Democratic presidential electors from Washington state who sought to ensure they won’t get fined if they ignore the results of the popular vote in a longshot bid to deny Donald Trump the presidency.
Bret Chiafalo of Everett and Levi Guerra of Grant County filed an emergency appeal after U.S. District Judge James Robart ruled against them on Wednesday.
But the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Friday declined to grant them an emergency injunction pending their appeal, saying they failed to show they were likely to win their lawsuit.
The electors took a voluntary pledge to vote for their party’s nominee — Hillary Clinton — if she won Washington, which she did.
But they say they might join with other so-called “Hamilton electors” from both parties to choose some other candidate when the Electoral College meets Monday, saying Trump is unfit for office.
Washington law says electors who break their pledge can be fined up to $1,000.
Electors have also issued court challenges in Colorado and California.
One in Texas has said he will not vote for Trump.
“Donald Trump lacks the foreign policy experience and the demeanor needed to be commander in chief,” Christopher Suprun wrote in a New York Times op-ed piece.
Another Republican elector from Texas, Art Sisneros, resigned in late November, saying a vote for Trump “would bring dishonor to God.”
Trump won 306 electoral votes to Clinton’s 232 in the Nov. 8 general election, although Clinton won the popular vote by a margin of more than 2.8 million votes. It takes 270 electoral votes to elect a president.
However, it is the electors of the Electoral College who actually cast the vote for the next president of the United States.
The 32nd Washington Electoral College will convene at the state capital at noon Monday.
The last faithless elector in Washington was Mike Padden of Spokane Valley, now a state senator. He voted for Ronald Reagan in 1976 rather than Gerald Ford, who had carried the state that election.
That prompted the state Legislature to impose a civil penalty of up to $1,000 on faithless electors, but the fine has never been imposed.
Secretary of State Kim Wyman has conferred with the attorney general on a process for levying a penalty if there are faithless electors this time, according to David Ammons, communications director for the secretary of state.
Washington is among the 11 states that has signed the National Popular Vote compact to move to a popular vote. More states would need to join, collectively having a majority of the electoral votes, to trigger the law.
In the Electoral College process, basically a winner-take-all by state, each state gets electors equal to the number of its U.S. senators and representatives. That’s 12 for Washington state.
Washington electors will each fill out their ballots for president and vice president during Monday’s meeting. The documents will be sent to Congress, the state and national archives, and the presiding judge of federal district court.
Vice President Biden, as president of the Senate, will preside over a joint session of Congress on Jan. 6. The new president will be inaugurated Jan. 20.
The Washington Electoral College gathering will be televised by TVW live and via livestreaming.
