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Attorney Jason Harrow argued at the Supreme Court in case about Electoral College, and his colleague Adam Eichen joins Harrow in effort to fix it.In oral arguments before the Supreme Court, Jason Harrow of Equal Citizens argued for the rights of “faithless electors” in Baca v. Colorado. Harrow is also executive director of Equal Citizens, and is joined by Adam Eichen, who is Campaigns Manager for the organization.
We open the show with this music video, which explains the Electoral College.
In December, 2016 Micheal Baca was an Electoral College “elector” in Colorado who was pledged to vote for Hillary Clinton. Baca sought release from such a pledge, so he could vote for John Kasich–in an effort to deny the presidency to Donald Trump and encourage other electors to follow suit. Colorado used a variety of efforts to force Baca to comply, and threatened to remove him as an elector. Officials changed the oath for electors, and later charged Baca with perjury for violating that oath.
Harrow gives an excellent recap of the case, including the Supreme Court session, and was disappointed by The Court’s unanimous ruling against is clients and those in a case from Washington State. But, he says, at least the justices clarified that electors are merely rubber stamps.
Harrow and Eichen are leading a project, Fix the College, to reform the Electoral College. While they have strong views of their own, they are conducting a process of listening to ideas from voters all over the country on the best way to address the present deficiencies in our presidential election process. You can sign up for alerts, and contribute to the dialogue here; the campaign will ramp up this fall.