Could Change.Org’s Record-Breaking Petition to Vote in Hillary Clinton Succeed?

Trump’s election to the presidency sent shockwaves rippling throughout the world and left many reeling. Though weeks have passed since the election, a good number of Democrats have taken that time to launch and promote a petition on Change.org urging the Electoral College to make Hillary Clinton president. The petition has garnered over 4.6 million signatures, making it the most popular cause ever promoted on Change.org.

That the petition has acquired millions of signatories is an accomplishment, and speaks to the power of social media to organize and unite large numbers of like-minded people. But that’s about it. And to be frank, the number is unsurprising given that this was the most controversial election in recent history, which polarized tens of millions of Americans. Millions may oppose Trump, but millions voted for him as well.

As for the petition’s goal, it’s certainly plausible and legal, but extremely unlikely. Of the 538 electors in the Electoral College, 236 of them are allowed to vote for whomever they choose. While electors traditionally cast their ballot in line with their state, if enough of them switched their votes to Clinton, she could potentially be the 45th US president.

The Change.org petition argues that electors that can legally vote for Clinton, should, because she won the popular vote by a 1.3 million vote margin. The other argument is that Trump poses a threat to American democracy that the Electoral College was specifically designed to protect against.

“Donald Trump is a danger to the Constitution,” Daniel Brezenoff, a social worker who launched the petition, said in a release, “and the electors have the power to stop him.”

That may be so, but changing the outcome of a fairly decided presidential election is a moonshot. And even if 4.6 million people voice their support for it in an online petition, the decision falls squarely on the shoulders of the electors, who for the most part have not indicated that they will do anything out of the ordinary.

“Believe me if there was anything I could do to make Hillary Clinton the next president of the United States I would,” said former Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell said, according to the Associated Press. “But this is a big waste of time.”