The Electoral College faces its Trump dilemma

In making what is likely to be the most consequential decision of this transition period, Donald Trump couldn’t resist petty vindictiveness.

Mitt Romney was briefly touted as the front-runner to become secretary of state. After meeting with Trump over a meal, he pronounced himself “very impressed” by the man he had described as “phony” during the campaign.

Trump did not accept this graciously. Citing a Trump friend, The Washington Post reported that the president-elect “enjoyed watching his dinner partner appear to grovel for the post.”

Memo to Trump’s Republican critics: Your initial instincts about Trump were right. Remember that catering to this man will bring only pain.

Memo to those claiming that everyone should give Trump a chance now that the people have spoken: Actually, “the people” didn’t make Trump president. They preferred Hillary Clinton by at least 2.8 million votes. If Trump takes office, it’s the Electoral College system that will do it. And the post-election Trump has been as abusive as he was during the campaign. The opposition’s job is to mitigate the damage.

Memo to the Electoral College that votes next Monday: Our tradition — for good reason — tells you that your job is to ratify the state-by-state outcome of the election. The question is whether Trump, Vladimir Putin and, perhaps, Clinton’s popular-vote advantage give you reason to blow up the system.

I don’t raise this lightly. The costs of breaking with 188 years of tradition would be very high. Alexander Hamilton’s Federalist 68 explaining the Electoral College is widely cited by those who want electors to stage an anti-Trump revolt. But we shouldn’t pretend that the Electoral College as described by Hamilton bears any resemblance to the system we have used since the 1828 election, when statewide election of its members became almost universal.

Yet defenders of the Electoral College cannot claim that following state results is a “constitutional” obligation. The Constitution makes no mention of popular election of electors, leaving the manner of their selection to the states. It’s worth asking why the national popular vote should be seen as meaningless while the state-by-state popular vote should be sacred.

The best response is that, as the National Conference of State Legislatures reports, 29 states and the District of Columbia have statutes that try to bind electors to their voters’ preference. But these cover only 15 of the 30 states Trump carried (plus an elector from Maine), and the popular vote shows that turning on Trump would not be a rejection of the public will.

Moreover, one passage from Federalist 68 seems relevant to the present circumstance. Hamilton wrote that the electors could be a barrier against “the desire in foreign powers to gain an improper ascendant in our councils.” Hamilton asked: “How could they better gratify this, than by raising a creature of their own to the chief magistracy of the Union?”

The CIA’s finding that Russia intervened in our election to make Trump president is an excellent reason for the electors to consider whether they should exercise their power. At the very least, they should be briefed on what the CIA knows, and in particular on whether there is any evidence that Trump or his lieutenants were engaged with Russia during the campaign.