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Colorado Elector Wants To Stop Trump From Becoming President

By Shaun Boyd

DENVER (CBS4) - Micheal Baca is hoping to do what millions of others have failed to do -- stop Donald Trump from becoming president.

A Colorado elector, he's part of a group calling itself the Hamilton Electors after founding father Alexander Hamilton, who said the Electoral College exists to prevent someone unqualified from becoming president.

Micheal Baca
Micheal Baca is interviewed by CBS4's Shaun Boyd (credit: CBS)

"I think it's a break-the-glass-in-case-of-an-emergency mechanism. We have that, 'Hey, Donald Trump came through, but now we need to break the glass and we need to really do our job under the 12th Amendment,'" Baca said.

Each state is allotted the same number electors as its congressional delegation. They're chosen by the parties and are expected to vote for the candidate who wins the state. But the Hamilton Electors plan to convince 37 Republican electors to vote for some Republican other than Donald Trump in order to keep Trump from reaching the 270 electoral votes needed to win the White House. The House of Representatives would then pick the president.

"A Republican won the Electoral College votes, absolutely Donald Trump won that. I'll give you that. But I don't think that Republican needs to be Donald Trump," Baca said.

He says they haven't decided which Republican it should be.

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(credit: CBS)

It wouldn't be the first time an elector has gone against the will of his or her state. But so-called faithless electors usually go rogue alone not en masse. Because each elector represents hundreds of thousands of popular votes, it's risky.

Baca says he's had people send him messages saying, "You won't be able to hide from us. We'll come and get you."

So far, no Republican electors have defected, at least publicly. But the Electoral College doesn't vote until Dec. 19.

"Someone needs to be first and we need to start spreading that message and I think the more that message gets across, people are going to realize, 'Hey, this is actually a slim chance but so was signing the constitution.'"

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(credit: CBS)

Twenty-nine states -- including Colorado -- have laws mandating electors support the winner of the state's popular vote, although they haven't been enforced.

An Electoral College coupe has never happened before. But neither has a president like Donald Trump.

Shaun Boyd is CBS4's political specialist. She's a veteran reporter with more than 25 years of experience. Follow her on Twitter @cbs4shaun.

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