Defector Electors should be punished

As one of the 1,742,718 Washington voters who supported Hillary Clinton and Tim Kaine, I was appalled that a third of our Democratic electors chose to replace our choices with their own. Those four defector-electors thumbed their noses at us voters and the democratic values they claimed to support.

I hope they will face the fines state law imposes for their childish behavior. I hope the state Democratic party will take better care to choose adults, like the eight who kept faith, as future electors. (So should Republicans — this isn't just one party's problem.) Most important, I hope the Legislature will enact a law requiring electors to vote for their party's nominees and replacing them if they don't.

Clinton and Kaine, not to mention the rest of us, deserved better. I've never been so embarrassed to be a Democrat.

This story was originally published December 29, 2016 at 6:15 PM with the headline "Defector Electors should be punished."