The race to 37: Electoral College members say they’re seeing possible defections
Meanwhile, Harvard law professor Lawrence Lessig says that as many as 20 electors could break from Trump
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(Credit: AP/Evan Vucci/Getty/Peter Muhly)Lawrence Lessig, a Harvard University law professor who has been offering pro bono legal counsel to Republican electors thinking of defecting from Trump, claimed on Tuesday that he has spoken with 20 electors who may vote for a third candidate.
“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,” Lessig told Politico.
The news comes as Hamilton Electors, the group of Electoral College members trying to persuade electors to defect to an alternative candidate, tell Salon they’re “looking at is the best chance we have of stopping Trump than at any other point during this process.”
“It’s a very fluid situation,” one Electoral College member told Salon.
On Tuesday, the Republican National Committee insisted to Politico that only Christopher Suprun, a Republican elector from Texas, is planning on defecting, and that they’ve kept a close head count on the electors. As Salon reported on Tuesday, Republican electors have been threatened with political reprisals if they fail to toe the line for Trump, a step which suggests that the campaign may worried about the Hamilton Electors’ strategy.
