Oklahoma Electors Vow To Vote Trump Despite Protests

On Monday morning, all 538 members of the Electoral College, including seven from Oklahoma, will cast their vote for president of the United States.

Republicans are in place to make Donald Trump's election official, but there is a last-minute campaign to change that.

The movement sparked from the ideology of Alexander Hamilton, who said someone was unfit to be president if they do not have the necessary experience, were put in place by a foreign power or if they threatened to be a tyrant.

Protesters who gathered Sunday evening at the state Capitol say they feel Donald Trump embodies all those characteristics.

Just about a dozen people braved the cold for the candlelight vigil, part of a nationwide campaign to change electors' minds.

“I think this was such a broken, weird election that a lot of people are feeling this way,” said Timothy Bradford of the Hamilton Electors project.

Letters have also been filling the electors' mailboxes, including insurance agent Charlie Potts.

“There are some that are just postcards,” he said. “I got a few letters inside Christmas cards.”

Potts has received more than 600 pieces of mail in recent weeks, but only 40 letters were written by Oklahomans. The majority come from New York and California.

“It’s not like all these people just decided one day, you know by golly I’m going to get involved in this and I’m going to write my own letter,” Potts said.

Potts said many are carbon copies of each other, proof of an organized push.

“I’m thinking they’re sore losers,” said state Rep. Bobby Cleveland, R-Norman, who says he has gotten close to 1,000 letters addressing his role as elector.

Cleveland is proud to be casting his electoral vote for Donald Trump, and he thinks Oklahoma's seven electors are all in agreement.

Besides dishonoring the wishes of local voters, Cleveland said a vote for someone else would just result in an alternate stepping up in their place.

“Also that person would get fined $1,000 and it would be a misdemeanor, and they would probably get run out of Oklahoma,” said Cleveland.

Potts admitted Trump was not his first pick, but will honor his responsibility.

“If I voted for Romney, for example, I may be the only one that does that,” he said. “That’s useless.”

Protesters said they will be back Monday morning at the Capitol to encourage electors to change their minds one last time.

“Even if they vote the way that they are supposed to, we’re still out here to support them and acknowledge them and just make American more aware of this process and the fact that it is a measure in which we can stop somebody that we feel is unfit to be president, such as President-elect Trump,” Bradford said.