Larry Lessig, the constitutional law professor at Harvard University and former candidate for the Democratic nomination, has made quite the claim.
Lessig is heading “Electors Trust,” an anti-Trump group that is focused on flipping enough presidential electors to deny Donald Trump the presidency. The group is going so far as to offer pro bono legal advice to Republican electors mulling whether to ditch Trump. Lessig is saying that 20 Republican electors are considering not voting for the president-elect.
“Obviously, 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 stated.
While this sounds concerning, Lessig offers no proof. In fact, his claim is in complete contradiction with a GOP vote count operation underway to ensure Republican electors stay loyal to Trump.
Only one Republican elector, Chris Suprun, has publicly stated he will vote against Trump despite his state of Texas overwhelmingly choosing him.
Given this reality, it’s basically impossible for these anti-Trump efforts to succeed. Of the 538 members of the Electoral College – Suprun is just one of 306 Republican members. Trump only needs 270 to win. If we dived into the realm of impossibility and deducted 20 votes from Trump’s column – he’d still have 286 votes. That is still 16 votes over the threshold.
Guys, the Electoral College will pick Trump on December 19th.
This is going to happen.