ELECTION KY

Kentucky electors standing firm with Trump

Joseph Gerth
@Joe_Gerth

Despite an effort by Democratic electors in Colorado and Washington to get the electoral college to throw the presidential election into the U.S. House of Representatives and elect someone other than Donald Trump as president, all Kentucky electors reached by the Courier-Journal say they are standing firm behind Trump, who won Kentucky in both the general election and March's GOP caucus.

Jim Skaggs, one of Kentucky's eight electors, said he has gotten 338 emails from people asking him to change his vote but that he will vote for Trump when the state's electors meet Dec. 19 in Kentucky's Supreme Court chamber in Frankfort.

"I fully intend to vote for Donald Trump," said the Bowling Green Republican, who added that he really doesn't like Trump. "It's not a law, I don't think. ... But I think it’s a duty."

Two electors have created an organization called "Moral Electors" in hopes of getting 37 Republican electors to switch their votes and throw the race into the House of Representatives — that's the number that will be needed to switch if Trump is eventually awarded Michigan.

There are 538 electors across the nation, and Trump needs 270 of them to become president. He currently has 290, without Michigan.

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“This is a longshot. It’s a Hail Mary,” P. Brett Chiafalo, an elector from the state of Washington and one of the founders of the group, told Politico. “However, I do see situations where — when we’ve already had two or three (Republican) electors state publicly they didn’t want to vote for Trump. How many of them have real issues with Donald Trump in private?”

If the race were thrown to the House, each state delegation would have one vote for president. The Senate would choose the vice president.

Some states require electors to vote as their state votes but Kentucky doesn't do that. Tres Watson, a spokesman for the Republican Party of Kentucky, said the state party doesn't give electors marching orders because it expects them to support the party's nominee. "Electors tend to be the most faithful of the party faithful," he said.

Trump, who ran as an outsider, has rubbed some establishment Republicans wrong because of his stands on issues, his aggressive personality and his statements about women, immigrants and minorities. Skaggs said he believes some of Trump's "character issues are deplorable" but that he was elected to vote for the candidate that won Kentucky.

"If the party chooses you, whether you like it or not, you've got a job to do," he said.

Skaggs said he doesn't know who is behind the email campaign to get him to switch his vote but said many of those who have emailed him have claimed to be "pillars of the Republican community, many have been women and some have had names that suggest they or their families might be recent immigrants."

The CJ reached six of Kentucky's eight electors.

Troy Sheldon, of Alexandria, said that he, too, will vote for Trump. "It's our responsibility," said Sheldon, the elector from the state's 4th Congressional District.

Sheldon said he has gotten fewer than a dozen emails asking him to change his vote — most coming from Hillary Clinton supporters arguing that since she won the nation's popular vote, that she should be elected.

And Walter Reichert, of Louisville, said there was never any doubt for him.

"Some people just don't know how to give up," said Reichert, who is the 3rd District elector. "When you lose you lose."

Scott Lasley, a professor at Western Kentucky University and the GOP elector from the 2nd District, said he has no intent to abandon Trump and opposes the effort because he said overturning the will of the people would cause chaos. "Throwing it to the House would be a mess," he said. "It would be rigged."

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When an elector votes for someone other than whom they are pledged, they are called "faithless" electors. Never in the nation's history have faithless electors altered the outcome of the presidential race. But in 1825, the presidential election did end up in the House of Representatives when four candidates, including Kentucky's Henry Clay, split the electoral votes. The House ultimately chose John Quincy Adams, who finished second in the electoral vote count.

Michael Carter, a Tompkinsville physician and the 1st District GOP elector, wouldn't consider anyone other than Trump.

"I will be a faithful elector. I have to be," he said, explaining that he has long been a faithful Republican and that he is a great-nephew of the late Rep. Tim Lee Carter, who served in Congress from 1965 to 1981. "It's too hard to go against my party."

Mike Duncan, the Republican National Committeeman from Kentucky and the former RNC chairman and an at-large elector from Kentucky, said he'll vote for Trump, too.

"I am a faithful elector," he said.

"I think we have a system that works. I believe in the process," he said, noting that he believes the electoral college is getting a bad rap. "There are all kinds of proposals to change the system. One that allows the national popular vote to choose the president, a proposal that allows states to decide by congressional district. ... I personally don't think any of those are going to proceed."

Nor does he think the "Moral Electors" effort will work.

"But it does make for a pretty interesting parlor game," he said.

Reporter Joseph Gerth can be reached at (502) 502-4702 or jgerth@courier-journal.com.

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