ATLANTA (AP) - Georgia Republicans chosen to cast the state’s electoral votes expect little drama when they convene Monday despite receiving thousands of emails, letters and other appeals to oppose Donald Trump in an effort to deny him the presidency.
Trump won Georgia’s popular vote in November, allowing the Republican slate of electors to formally determine who receives the state’s 16 electoral votes. Georgia law doesn’t require electors chosen by state parties to back their party’s candidate, but the group is made up of longtime GOP officials and volunteers.
Nearly all have publicly said they will honor Georgia voters’ choice, and party officials say they expect no dissent when the electors cast their ballots at the state Capitol in Atlanta on Monday.
“We’ve talked to each other on the phone, e-mail, Facebook,” said Kirk Shook, an elector and secretary of the Georgia Republican Party. “All of us are in the same boat: We’re still voting for Donald Trump.”
In the meantime, electors told The Associated Press they’ve received thousands of emails a day, and a smaller number of letters at their home or work. Shook said he received nearly 50 emails during a recent 20 minute conversation with a reporter.
Electors said many of the messages were identical form letters asking electors to support Hillary Clinton, the Democratic presidential candidate.
Other messages asked electors to support a generic Republican other than Trump, said Rachel Little, an elector and chair of the Fourth Congressional District’s Republican party.
Other messages asked electors to support a generic Republican other than Trump, said Rachel Little, an elector and chair of the Fourth Congressional District’s Republican party.
“Some people tried to get creative, decorating envelopes to look like Christmas cards,” Little said, laughing. But return addresses told Little that the requests to ditch Trump aren’t coming from Georgians she represents.
“I don’t know anybody in New York,” said Little, a paralegal from Loganville about 35 miles northeast of Atlanta.
Before Monday’s ballot, Georgia electors first have to fill an empty slot.
It’s not clear who the replacement elector will be to fill Baoky Vu’s former position.
Vu, a naturalized citizen from Vietnam, said in August that that he could not vote for Trump and may not support Trump in the electoral college, prompting his pushback from the businessman’s supporters in the state. Vu resigned the same day.
This year will mark the third time Randy Evans has served as an elector. He’s called efforts to build opposition among electors “unprecedented.”
Evans, an Atlanta attorney who also serves as Georgia’s state committeeman to the Republican National Committee, said a few emails or letters were vaguely threatening but never specific enough to worry him.
“It’s clearly organized, designed to harass and clog peoples’ inboxes,” Evans said.
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