Michael J. Davis, J.D.

3609 Heritage Drive

Durant, Oklahoma
74701

Honorable Elector
of the United States Electoral College,
I write to you today, as well as every other of the 290 Republican Party Electors from states where GOP
slates of electors were chosen by the voters through their ballot selection of Presidential Candidate
Donald J. Trump of New York.
Your duty to the United States of America is a solemn and serious obligation. The role of the Electoral
College is emphatically not mere bureaucratic process, but a deliberative and independent decisionmaking capacity granted to you by the Constitution. It was envisioned by Alexander Hamilton to be a
backstop against an election season that might otherwise result in the attainment of the highest office by
an individual who is unfit for one or any combination of reasons.
As Alexander Hamilton explained in Federalist Paper #68 (from which I will be quoting multiple times):
The process of election affords a moral certainty, that the office of the President will never fall
to the lot of any man who is not in an eminent degree endowed with the requisite qualification.
The Electoral College was designed, in-part, to insulate and protect the office of the Presidency from the
unfit, and indeed even from individuals who while they may not be unfit, may have other reason to be
determined against in the wisdom of the Electors and the Electors alone.
Hamilton described appointed Electors as:
Men most capable of analyzing the qualities adapted to the station and acting under
circumstances favorable to deliberation, and to a judicious combination of all the reasons and
inducements which were proper to govern their choice[who] will be most likely to possess the
information and discernment requisite to such complicated investigations."
This is not the language of rote process, it is the language of independent discretion and the privilege to
make a decision in light of all the facts available. Importantly and presciently, Hamilton added in his
treatise on the Electoral College a charge and challenge to the Electors:
[E]very practicable obstacle should be opposed to cabal, intrigue, and corruption. These
most deadly adversaries of republican government might naturally have been expected to make
their approaches from more than one quarter, but chiefly from the desire in foreign powers to
gain an improper ascendant in our councils. How could they better gratify this, than by raising a
creature of their own to the chief magistracy of the Union?
I write to you today to ask you to heed Alexander Hamiltons words. You may very well feel obliged to
follow the expectations of your state and your party to write on your electoral ballot, the name of Donald
J. Trump and that is your prerogative entirely. But given the circumstances of this unique election, I beg
you to consider a different route.

I do not need to insult your own wit by repeating information that can be found in reliable journalism.
There are many reasons for pause by the Electors as they make their decision on December 19th, 2016.
There will be considerable pressure to appoint Donald J. Trump, and this pressure has some measure of
persuasiveness. It is up to you to determine if a different route, in this instance, is a bit more persuasive.
Here is the route I propose, and you may either entertain or reject outright as is your will. It is not a route
that would elect Hillary Clinton but a route that would permit the Republican Majority of the United
States House of Representatives to select the President at their discretion.
Flip the ticket. Write Mike Pence as President, and Donald J. Trump as Vice President.
To be appointed to the Presidency, an individual needs 270 Electoral Votes. 290 Republican Electors are
empowered at this time to select Donald J. Trump. If a mere 21 of those 290, decided instead to write the
name of Mike Pence then both Donald J. Trump and Hillary Clinton would fall short of the 270
necessary Electoral votes to win outright through Electoral College appointment.
The backup plan, outlined in the U.S. Constitution (Article II Section 1) would be invoked, sending the
selection of the President to the Republican Majority in the U.S. House of Representatives.
I suggest that, via this method, you permit the U.S. House of Representatives to select the next President
of the United States. The Constitution permits them, at their discretion voting in state blocks, to select one
from among the top five individuals in the Electoral College. With Mike Pence, then being one of the
recipients of Electoral Votes making him eligible for selection, he can properly and legally be appointed
as President by the House. Trump can then be made Vice President by the Republican Senate majority.
Pence, as Governor of Indiana and the Vice Presidential Nominee, is a legitimate pick, and does not
swing the election to a different party. This method would mollify concerns of Mr. Trumps potential
drawbacks, while setting the Executive Branch of the nation on a course similar to his promises but with a
more competent and less impulsive Chief Magistrate (to use Hamiltons phrase).

Thank you for considering this idea. Please consider reading Federalist Paper #68 and I beg that you do
your duty to your Nation.

Your fellow citizen,

Michael J. Davis, J.D.

Durant, Oklahoma