OLYMPIA — The four Electoral College members who broke a state law by voting for someone other than Hillary Clinton can expect to receive $1,000 fines from the Secretary of State’s Office next week.
Violation notices will be sent to each elector informing them they will have 21 days to appeal and 60 days to pay, David Ammons, a spokesman for Secretary of State Kim Wyman, said Thursday.
Precise wording of those notices and specifics of the appeal process were still being worked on Thursday, he said.
At least one of the rogue electors, Bret Chiafalo who lives near Everett, doesn’t plan to pay. Instead, he said, he’ll fight the fine in court by challenging the constitutionality of the law he’s accused of violating.
“I have every intention to appeal it. There are constitutional questions that need to be answered,” he said.
When the Electoral College met Monday Washington’s 12 Democratic electors were supposed to cast their ballots for Clinton who won the state’s popular vote. Each had signed a pledge to support the Democratic nominee when they were chosen months ago by their party to serve as electors.
Instead Chiafalo, Levi Guerra of Warden and Esther John of Seattle cast their ballots for Colin Powell, the Republican former U.S. Secretary of State, whom they considered a better alternative to Republican President-elect Donald Trump. Bob Satiacum, of the Puyallup Tribe, cast his vote for Faith Spotted Eagle, a Native American leader in South Dakota.
Chiafalo is a co-founder of a group called Hamilton Electors, which campaigned to prevent Trump from winning the Electoral College. They needed to convince Republican electors in other states to break their pledges and back another GOP candidate, such as Powell. The effort failed.
In Washington, the last time an elector broke from the popular vote in the state was in 1976, when Republican Mike Padden, of Spokane Valley, voted for Ronald Reagan instead of Gerald Ford. The next year lawmakers passed the law establishing a civil penalty for so-called “faithless electors.”
This is the first time that law will be imposed.
Wyman, a Republican, has relied on Attorney General Bob Ferguson, a Democrat, for direction on how to proceed.
“This is uncharted territory, implementing a 40-year-old statute that has never been invoked other than to make sure every elector has a pledge on file with us,” Ammons said.
Even before the Electoral College met, Chiafalo and Guerra asked a federal judge to issue an injunction that would preclude the state from fining them if they broke their pledges. The judge turned them down.
Chiafalo said he anticipates returning to the federal court system to challenge the state’s ability to dictate how electors vote.
The U.S. Constitution lays out ground rules for the Electoral College. But there are no provisions in the constitution or federal law requiring electors to vote in line with the results of the popular vote in their states, according to information compiled by the National Archives and Records Administration, which guides states in conducting the process.
Most states have a “winner-take-all” system that awards all electors to the winning presidential candidate. Maine and Nebraska each have a variation of proportional representation.
Jaxon Ravens, chairman of the Washington State Democratic Party, said after this week’s Electoral College vote he was disappointed in the actions of the four Democrats and wanted the state to enforce the law.
He also said the state party needed to review its internal process to make sure electors “fulfill the duties and obligations to which they were elected.”
Chiafalo, who is a vice chairman of the 21st Legislative District Democratic Party organization, said he understands what people expected of him but believes strongly he has the right to cast his electoral vote for the person he believes to be most fit to be president.
“I take my pledge seriously,” he said. “But I take the constitution more seriously.”
Jerry Cornfield: 360-352-8623; jcornfield@heraldnet.com Twitter: @dospueblos
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
