The Electoral College is set to cast votes for president of the United States on Monday. Ohio’s 18 presidential electors will gather in Columbus at the Statehouse. Some have received a deluge of messages trying to change their votes.
Ralph King is an elector from Ohio’s 11th Congressional District, which includes parts of Cleveland and Akron. He says the letters came in a trickle at first, but this weekend, 40 of them showed up in his mailbox. And that’s in addition to Facebook messages and emails.
“I replied to one person. Their response back is not something that I would be able to repeat in the interview here,” he said.
Another elector, the chairman of the Hamilton County GOP, posted a photo on Twitter of the stack of letters he’s gotten.
King says the messages urge him to vote for someone other than Donald Trump, who won the state by 8 percentage points. Some are form letters from a campaign to flip electors, he says, and others are written by individuals.
King says he won’t change his vote.
“Absolutely not, for several reasons. One, I have supported Donald Trump all the way, you know, from the beginning of this election. And the other reason would be the voters of Ohio have spoken,” King said.
Ohio has one elector from each Congressional district, and two who represent the state at large. They’re scheduled to meet Monday at noon.
