Observador Newsletter: What are faithless voters? Interview with Diana Marie Afonso

In this week’s edition of the ‘Newsletter of the Observador – Até à Casa Branca’, journalist João Almeida Dias enters the domain of faithless electors.

The Electoral College vote is scheduled for December 14th, 2020, already next Monday. There, Joe Biden is expected to win with 306 votes and Donald Trump to get 232 electoral votes. But is it possible that these numbers might change? This is where faithless voters come in.

In acts of nonconformity or even rebellion, some voters of the Electoral College have voted for an option beyond what the voters of their State dictated. Even if very marginal, there may still be some hope for Donald Trump in the 2020 presidential election.

In sum, 33 of the 50 States require Electoral College voters to follow the orientation of the popular vote, with penalties ranging from fines (North Carolina) to voter cancellation and voter replacement (Arizona and Michigan) if this does not happen. However, in other cases, the vote is not repeated (as in Wisconsin) or voters can even determine their vote in the Electoral College as they see fit (Pennsylvania is one of them).

The newsletter also includes an interview with a Portuguese-American physician from Providence, Rhode Island, Diana Marie Afonso, who talks about the pandemic as a public health problem that shouldn’t be politicized.

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