Colorado’s state attorney general will soon decide whether to criminally charge one of the state’s nine original members of the electoral college with a crime for the way he attempted to vote on Monday.
On Wednesday, Colorado Secretary of State Wayne Williams, a Republican, made good on his promise to refer the case to prosecutors with the state attorney general’s office.
Elector Micheal Baca, a Democrat, declined to check the lone box on his ballot for Hillary Clinton, who is entitled to all nine of Colorado’s electoral college votes under state law.
Instead, Baca drew another check box on his ballot, wrote “John Kasich” next to it, and checked that box instead. The move was part of a failed attempt to rally enough electors around the country behind Kasich in order to deny Donald Trump the White House.
Baca’s ballot was not counted. He was replaced on the spot with another elector because he ran afoul of a state statute that reads:
Each presidential elector shall vote for the presidential candidate and, by separate ballot, vice-presidential candidate who received the highest number of votes at the preceding general election in this state.
The electors were required to swear an oath of office on Monday, promising to vote for the winner of the popular vote, which opens the potential for perjury charges.
Baca is one of three electors who publicly denounced the state law as unconstitutional, insisting that the founding fathers wanted the electoral college to serve as a check on the votes of the people.
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However, challenges in federal and state courts failed to block Colorado from enforcing its law binding electors’ votes to the election night result.
A spokeswoman for Colorado Attorney General Cynthia Coffman, a Republican, did not immediately respond to questions about the timeline for making a decision on criminal charges. The statement from the secretary of state's office says that electors were warned they could face misdemeanor charges if they did not vote for Clinton.
