Ohio and Michigan Republican electors, set to meet in just over two weeks to elect the President of the United States, are being deluged by emails urging them to cast their votes for someone other than President-elect Donald Trump.

Electoral College members reached by The Blade said they’re not considering a vote switch, but it’s not for lack of trying by the so-called “Hamilton Electors,” who want the Electoral College to respect the popular vote won by Democrat Hillary Clinton.

“It was incredible, the number of emails,” said Alex Triantafilou, Hamilton County Republican chairman, and one of 18 Ohio electors, while at Mr. Trump’s “thank-you” rally in Cincinnati on Thursday. He said he received more than 1,500 emails urging him to dump Mr. Trump.

“They’ve done nothing but strengthen my resolve to vote for Donald Trump,” Mr. Triantafilou said. “Everybody knew the rules. If the rules were different the campaigns would have been different. I think the people who are clamoring for the popular vote are sore losers.”

The national campaign is named after framer Alexander Hamilton who envisioned the Electoral College as a safeguard against popular passions. It is aimed at getting at least 37 Trump electors to vote for someone else, and deny him the necessary 270-vote majority.

The 538 national electors meet Dec. 19 in their state capitals. Ohio’s 18 electors meet at noon in the state Capitol in Columbus. It is expected to be an event of pomp and party celebration, with no surprises.

Ohio Republican Party Chairman Matt Borges said the 18 Ohio electors were hand-picked by the Trump campaign to ensure there would be loyalty in the Electoral College process.

“That’s not going to happen here,” Mr. Borges said. “We intentionally allowed the [Trump] campaign to choose their electors so there’d be no issues like we’re seeing in other places.” Those electors were ratified by the 66-member Republican State Central Committee.

The group includes prominent members of the Trump campaign in Ohio.

“There will be nothing to sway my vote,” said elector Curt Braden, who represents the 16th District. He’s a member of the Stark County Board of Elections.

He said the appeals were eloquently stated in some cases, but, “nobody in Ohio is going to vote differently. The people I’ve talked to are pretty excited. Being able to cast one of 538 votes is quite an honor.”

Robert Alexander, a political science professor at Ohio Northern University and an expert on the Electoral College, said attempts were made in 2008 to turn Democratic electors against Barack Obama.

“The same kinds of things have unfolded in past elections,” Mr. Alexander said.

Elector surveys

Using students in his classes, Mr. Alexander has surveyed national presidential electors in each of the last four presidential elections, and reached an average of 60 percent of them. He found that at least 8 to 10 percent will admit they considered refusing to vote for their state’s popular winner — though very few actually do.

“The biggest thing keeping them from being free agents is retribution from the party. Almost all of them have worked extensively for the political parties. They truly are the political elites. They are people that are the backbone of the Democratic Party, the backbone of the Republican Party,” Mr. Alexander said.

“It might mean they have to grin and bear it and support a candidate at the top of the ticket they don’t like — but they don’t want to hurt the party,” he said.

He said 2016 is set to become the fifth American presidential election to end in a “misfire” — in which the winner was not the candidate with the biggest popular vote. Those previous elections were 1824, 1876, 1888, and 2000.

Mr. Alexander said the Hamilton Electors are probably concentrating their lobbying on states that normally vote Democratic but which went with Mr. Trump this year, namely Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin. He said they might be experiencing more heavy community pressure than they would in Republican-leaning Ohio.

Michigan’s 16 electors include Wyckham Seelig of Ann Arbor, who represents the 7th Congressional District that includes Monroe, Lenawee, and Hillsdale counties.

Mr. Seelig told WZZM, an ABC TV affiliate in Grand Rapids, Mich., that he’s been bombarded by emails and letters urging him to switch his vote. He said he couldn’t, under Michigan law, even if he wanted to, which he doesn’t.

“I have received over 13,000 emails asking me to be a faithless elector,” he said. “In other words, to vote for Hillary or for someone else. I have also received a stack of letters from all over the country asking me to do the same thing.

“In Michigan there is a law that says if an elector tries to vote for someone other than the candidate to whom he is pledged that elector will immediately be replaced and someone who will vote the way the people voted will cast the ballot,” he said.

Mr. Trump is the first Republican to have won Michigan since 1988. His victory was by only 10,704 votes out of 4.8 million votes.

Mr. Seelig said he was elected by the Trump caucus in the 7th Congressional District.

Ohio law

Ohio law requires electors to vote for the nominee of the party that appointed them, but doesn’t spell out a consequence if the elector fails to comply with that requirement.

Professor Alexander said he’s among those who question the relevance of the Electoral College, since it has not blossomed as the confab of wise heads the Founders originally intended.

“It’s a vestige of a past era, and the only reason I think we don’t change it is a fear of what could happen. Too much uncertainty,” Mr. Alexander said.

Lee Strang, a law professor at the University of Toledo, noted that Ohio law requires electors to vote for their party’s nominee, and he said the Constitution is “not clear” that states can enforce the requirement.

“Even if Ohio’s Republican electors are not legally accountable for their votes, they were chosen by the state party, approved by the Trump campaign, and they tend to be party loyalists, so they are likely to vote for Donald Trump,” Mr. Strang said.

Ohio 14th District elector James Wert, president and CEO of CM Wealth Advisors, said he was honored to be named a Trump elector for the state of Ohio and fully intends to vote for Mr. Trump on Dec. 19.

“This election process was consciously put into place by our Founding Fathers to guard against high population states dominating national election outcomes at the expense of smaller states,” Mr. Wert said. “The actual popular vote count may be interesting to some from a historical standpoint but is totally irrelevant given the system prescribed in our Constitution for electing our president.”

Contact Tom Troy: tomtroy@theblade.com or 419-724-6058 or on Twitter @TomFTroy.

First Published December 4, 2016, 5:22 a.m.