Electors prepare to finalize vote for Trump
By Steve Herring
Published in News on December 18, 2016 1:45 AM
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News-Argus/STEVE HERRING
Ann Sullivan and Linda Harper have received countless letters urging them to reconsider their Electoral College votes already pledged to Donald Trump.
Ann Sullivan and Linda Harper knew they were going to be part of something historic.
What they didn't count on was being inundated with hundreds of cards and letters and thousands of emails -- not to mention phones calls at all times of the day and night.
Mrs. Sullivan no longer answers her phone if the call is from an out-of-state number.
But neither woman regrets being elected to serve as a presidential elector Monday when the North Carolina Electoral College convenes in the Senate chambers in the historic Capitol building in Raleigh.
Mrs. Sullivan, a longtime Republican activist known for her colorful patriotic outfits, is representing District 13. Mrs. Harper, who has been active in Republican politics for almost a decade, is representing District 1 .
They were elected to the positions at their respective GOP district conventions earlier in the year. The state has 15 electors.
It is the third time Mrs. Sullivan has been nominated as an elector and the first for Mrs. Harper.
"The last time I was nominated Barack Obama went in so the Democrat elector went in," Mrs. Sullivan said. "There are two sets, Republican electors and Democrat electors. I was the secretary for George (W.) Bush's electoral college for his second election I believe.
"At that time I was in the Third District. At the Third District (Republican) Convention and like at the 13th District Convention while they are electing people to go to the national convention as delegates they also elect a presidential elector for the Electoral College."
As for the letter writers, they are wasting their time trying to convince the two women not to vote for Donald Trump.
"Xenophobe, homophobe. All of those things are in here (letters)," Mrs. Sullivan said. "Ties with Russia. Crazy stuff. I mean there is not a thing in any one of those that would change my vote. One called me and left me a message. I called them back. They were in New York. She said, 'I need to tell you why you don't need to vote for Trump.'
"I said, 'Ma'am, 'I'm not changing my vote. I have worked too hard to get Donald Trump elected to change my opinion now.' I said, 'If you all had worked as hard as I did then Hillary may be going in there. So look at your own party.'"
Both women said they have received at least 25 letters a day for more than two weeks.
For the most part, the letters are form letters which Mrs. Sullivan said she does not read. People should speak for themselves and not sign form letters, she said.
"I got one positive one that said they are praying for me to make the right decision," Mrs. Harper said.
Phone calls start at 6:30 a.m. and have continued until midnight, Mrs. Sullivan said.
Some start off by saying Mrs. Clinton should be president because she received more popular votes, Mrs. Sullivan said.
"Well, I didn't make the rules," she said.
Most people don't understand what the electoral college is, Mrs. Harper said.
"They are the ones that are hollering loudest to do away with it," Mrs. Sullivan said. "Let me tell you something, California had a hundred and something electoral votes. We have 15.
"If we do not have the Electoral College, California, Texas and New York, I am not sure about Michigan, they would be the ones that elected everybody, and the rest of the United States would have no say. You know this really is the fair way to do it. We should in the next census pick up two more (congressional) seats in North Carolina."
Mrs. Harper said when she had been asked to serve as presidential elector and won election that she had no idea "of any of this happening."
"And these people in there (letters), there is one thing that you need to make sure that you put in your article, these people are asking us to break the law," Mrs. Sullivan said. "They have offered to pay our expenses for a lawyer.
"They have set up a GoFundMe account. That particular one I answered back and said, 'Well, you set me up a GoFundMe account now who is going to do the time in jail?' I'm not."
There is a $500 penalty for North Carolina electors who do not vote for the candidate who wins its electoral votes, she said.
It should be more, Mrs. Sullivan said.
"We are representing people. It is not our call," Mrs. Harper said.
"I didn't get any letters against Bush," Mrs. Sullivan said. "Also, there were professors studying the electoral college and I got a few surveys from them. But as far as getting negative, this kind of stuff, I didn't get any."
Most people have no clue as to what an elector does, she said.
"I kind of got upset with people when I couldn't get them to realize the importance of what we were doing," Mrs. Sullivan said.
"In my opinion, the elector is more important than any other thing that we have done, and we need people who are in those positions that if they don't know what it is when they get elected, they need to go ahead and study up on it because to me that is the most important thing there is. You literally are electing the president and representing everybody in your district.
"I ran unopposed both times for elector. Again everybody this time said what is an elector? What is an elector? I did a workshop on what an elector is two weeks ago. I have been asked to speak at different places on what an elector does and what it means."
The North Carolina Secretary of State, currently Elaine Marshall, is in charge of the Electoral College process in the state.
There is a script to follow so that the business conducted is the same in Electoral Colleges in each state and District of Columbia, Mrs. Sullivan said.
"It is very organized. It is very formal, and it does not take long at all to do," Mrs. Sullivan said. "We are all allowed to invite one guest because it (room) is so small.
"I imagine their will be media there because of the importance of this one. It is such a high honor and if you look at the stacks and stacks of letters in here. Each one of them talks about what an honor it is to be the elector."
An organizational meeting will be held Sunday night, she said.
"I can't wait. I hope we don't get anything after Dec. 19," Mrs. Sullivan said. "And I don't anybody to show up at my house either.
"I am not calling these people (letter writers) names. I am saying that everybody in this box, even you unsigned ones, are after me to break the law. I would never ask anybody to break the law."
"I wouldn't either," Mrs. Harper said.
"The thing that bothers me is when the people vote in referendums and things like this and the people (have their) say and then they (politicians) turn around and do the opposite. That really bothers me a lot."
Editor's note ---- The framers of the U.S. Constitution established the Electoral College process as a compromise between those who wanted a president elected by popular vote and those who want the decision left up to the Congress.
In North Carolina, electors are nominated by political parties.
A state's number of electors equals the number of members in its Congressional delegation -- one for each Representatives plus two for the state's Senators.
North Carolina has 15 electors.
Most states, including North Carolina, have a winner-takes-all system in which all of its electoral votes go to the winner.
The Electoral College consists of 538 electors -- 270 electoral votes are required to elect the president.
Electors meet in their home states on the first Monday after the second Wednesday in December after the presidential election.
They cast their votes for president and vice president on separate ballots.
All electoral votes are counted in a joint session of Congress on Jan. 6 in the year following the meeting of the electors.
Representatives and Senators meet in the House chamber to conduct the official tally of electoral votes.
Editor's note:
The framers of the U.S. Constitution established the Electoral College process as a compromise between those who wanted a president elected by popular vote and those who want the decision left up to the Congress.
In North Carolina, electors are nominated by political parties.
A state's number of electors equals the number of members in its Congressional delegation -- one for each Representatives plus two for the state's Senators.
North Carolina has 15 electors.
Most states, including North Carolina, have a winner-takes-all system in which all of its electoral votes go to the winner.
The Electoral College consists of 538 electors -- 270 electoral votes are required to elect the president.
Electors meet in their home states on the first Monday after the second Wednesday in December after the presidential election.
They cast their votes for president and vice president on separate ballots.
All electoral votes are counted in a joint session of Congress on Jan. 6 in the year following the meeting of the electors.
Representatives and Senators meet in the House chamber to conduct the official tally of electoral votes.