This is only part of the story!
Colorado's Electoral College voters start feeling pressure
By Ann Imse
Denver Rocky Mountain News Staff Writer
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The eight Colorado members of the Electoral College are suddenly finding themselves under the lights, not to mention under pressure.
One elector, Mary Hergert, found questions from ABC News more like veiled intimidation than journalistic inquiry. So she checked her caller ID to make sure the call really was from ABC News.
It was.
On Dec. 18, the 538 people elected to once-obscure ceremonial posts may find themselves in a 271-269 vote if George W. Bush wins Florida over Al Gore, and Gore holds onto microscopic leads in New Mexico and Oregon.
State law requires Colorado electors to vote for Bush as the victor of the Colorado balloting. But electors in 26 other states are not legally bound to follow their voters' wishes, according to the National Archives and Records Administration.
So even if Bush wins Florida, Gore could become president if just two electors switch their votes to the candidate who won the popular vote. The electors vote on Dec. 18 but their sealed ballots are not opened until Jan. 6.
And that has politicians starting to worry, and news organizations asking pointed questions.
"You couldn't have written a script this weird," says Bob Beauprez, an elector and chairman of the Colorado Republican Party.
Hergert said the caller said he was "Ed from ABC News" and asked if she would ever consider voting for Al Gore, then said it is unconstitutional for her to be bound by state law to follow Colorado voters' preference for Bush.
"It was bothersome," said Hergert, who served as Bush's Weld County campaign chairman. And in reality, the Constitution says nothing on the subject.
A second Colorado elector, Rob Dieter, also mentioned a call from ABC News when the Denver Rocky Mountain News asked if anyone had tried to influence his vote.
ABC News spokeswoman Su-Lin Nichols apologized for any confusion caused when a group of staffers called electors across the country with a series of identical questions in preparation of a possible story on the Electoral College vote.
"We feel they acted professionally," she said.
Nichols refused to release the exact questions. But she insisted they were questions, not statements, dealing with the electors' knowledge of legal restrictions on their votes.
Hergert was not happy. "I think the mainstream media has enough to answer for," she said, referring to the television networks' repeated reversals of results in Florida.
Networks awarded the state to Gore while voters in Florida's second time zone were still voting, reportedly discouraging some still waiting to cast a ballot.
As in Colorado, most electors are staunch party activists unlikely to cave in to pressure and change their votes.
"I don't think anybody who knows me would even think about that," said Marcy Benson, a Colorado elector who is a major GOP donor and wife of Bruce Benson, the one-time Republican candidate for governor. "There isn't any circumstance that would make me vote for Al Gore."
Colorado's eight electors, nominated by Gov. Bill Owens and elected by the voters who chose George W. Bush:
Bob Beauprez, 52, Lafayette
State Republican Party chairman
CEO of Heritage Bank
The Electoral College "is part of our tradition. This certainly gives greater influence in the process to smaller states. (Otherwise), the big states would all be power brokers. If we had a popular vote — with all that's going on in Florida — do you want a national recount? We wouldn't have a president until the Fourth of July."
Mary Hergert, 52, Greeley
Former state Republican Party secretary, local campaign manager
Weld County public trustee and owner of a process-serving company called The Paper Chase
"I believe in the Electoral College, though I've always wondered why we have it. Watching the results, I realize the Middle Western states would be ignored without it. We wouldn't even know what the candidates look like. Then people would say, 'Why bother? We don't even have a vote."'
Marcy Benson, 49, Denver
Major donor and wife of former Republican gubernatorial candidate Bruce Benson
Community volunteer
"I'm very torn. The Electoral College gives every state more stake in the election. Part of me says we should have one man, one vote. I'd want to hear the pros and cons on both sides. But you don't change the Constitution because of one election."
Rob Dieter, 54, Boulder
Friend of George W. Bush
University of Colorado Law School clinical professor
The Electoral College is "set up to protect the less populous states, so they have a say in the outcome. With so much of the population on either coast, if we just went on the presidential popular vote, you could run a campaign in California, Texas, Florida, New York and a few Great Lakes states. And the rest of the country wouldn't even see the candidates."
Ralph Nagel, 55, Denver
One of the Republican Party's largest donors
Owner of LeGan Inc., the Meridian nursing home chain
Lilly Nunez, 62, Littleton
Republican National Committeewoman, wife of State Rep. Joe Nunez, former Republican state party secretary
The Electoral College "has worked for all these how many years. I was honored. It's so close either way. I think we should stay with the process."
Lt. Gov. Joe Rogers, 36, Denver
State's second-highest ranking Republican elected official
"I understand there have been some 800 bills to deal with the Electoral College in the past. I don't have any doubt you're going to see bills dealing with the elimination of the Electoral College. I don't know how I feel about that. But for the purpose of this election, the candidates knew the rules. We've got to follow the Constitution."
Robert Martinez, 57, Castle Rock
Republican National Committeeman
Recently sold Great Southwestern Construction Co.
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