Effort Under Way to Sway Arizona's Electors to Vote Against Trump

There is an effort underway to pressure Arizona's electoral college representatives to vote against Donald Trump when the electoral college convenes on December 19th. Arizona is one of 21 states in which the electors are not legally bound to vote for the candidate their state elected.

This is actually more common than you may think, so called Faithless Electors have actually cast different votes than their state's populations in 19 of our presidential elections, and as recently as 2004 when an anonymous elector from Minnesota cast a vote for John Edwards instead of John Kerry:

An unknown elector from Minnesota, pledged to vote for Democrat John Kerry, cast a presidential vote instead for Kerry’s running mate John Edwards (the elector also cast his or her vice presidential vote for Edwards). One Minnesota elector, who believed the Edwards vote must have been a mistake, said, "I'm certainly glad the Electoral College isn't separated by one vote."

The effort underway is targeting individual electors in a number of states, including Arizona. One AZ Elector is Alberto Gutier, a Republican and the director of the Governor's Office of Highway Safety. Gurier told FOX10:

"On Thursday, I started getting phone calls and e-mails at home and on my personal accounts telling me that we should basically abstain from voting for Trump for all these reasons."

These efforts are not likely to bear any fruit, but it would not be surprising to see at a couple of votes swing differently than is projected.