The idea that Florida's 29 Electoral College members will not vote for President-elect Donald Trump is "ridiculous," said incoming Senate President Joe Negron and one of the electors.

Florida law requires its electors, who are nominated by the party that won the election, to pledge to vote for the party's nominee. There are no penalties if they don't, but Negron said choosing Hillary Clinton wouldn't follow the will of the majority of state voters who elected Trump. The Electoral College will vote in Tallahassee on Dec. 19.

"It sounds like sour grapes to me," said Negron, of Stuart. "We had an election in Florida and Donald Trump received the majority of votes and therefore gets 29 electoral votes."

Negron initially supported former Gov. Jeb Bush's presidential bid but backed Trump after it became clear the real estate mogul would win the Republican nomination.

The oath

There is no constitutional provision or federal law that requires electors to vote according to the results of the popular vote in their states. Yet Florida is one of 29 states, along with the District of Columbia, that have laws binding their electors to follow a state's popular vote, according to

An online petition that had 4.3 million supporters Monday afternoon is asking Electoral College members nationwide to ignore their state laws and vote for Clinton because she received the majority of the country's popular vote. But those electors take their oath to stick to their party's nominee seriously, said St. Lucie County Republican Executive Committee Chairman Bill Paterson. Even if the electors bucked their pledge there would be no guarantee they would vote for Clinton, especially because they are Republican Party loyalists picked by party leadership.

"It's an oath that we take seriously," Paterson said. "I'm fairly sure the consequences would be swift and severe in their respective counties. We are a united party behind Donald Trump."


Electoral College members who cast a vote against their party's nominee are called "faithless." The most recent case happened in Minnesota, when an elector voted for John Edwards, Democratic nominee John Kerry's running mate, as both president and vice president in 2004. The state passed a law after that to immediately replace faithless electors and cancel their vote.

This year, two Electoral College Democratic members from Washington State and Colorado have launched an effort to convince Republicans to cast votes against Trump, although they have admitted their effort is a longshot, Politico reported.

Florida elector and Palm Beach County GOP chairman Michael Barnett said he's received about 60 emails from voters asking him to vote against Trump. One those stated, "There is no reason — either morally or politically or constitutionally — that the electors need to create this crisis now."

Barnett said he's not persuaded.

"I agree there's no chance that the electoral college will flip votes in Florida," Barnett said. "If I could I wouldn’t. I'm a strong supporter of Donald Trump."

Here are Florida's 29 Electoral College members picked by the Republican Party:

Ade Aderibigbe; Larry Ahern; Brian Ballard; Kristy Banks; Michael Barnett; LizBeth Benacquisto; Robin Bernstein; Pam Bondi; John Browning; Sharon Day; Dena DeCamp; Nick DiCeglie; Jeremy Evans; John Falconetti; Peter Feaman; Kat Gates-Skipper;Joe Gruters; Debbie Hannifan; Blaise Ingoglia; Tony Ledbetter; Mike Moberley; Susan Moore; Joe Negron; Clint Pate; Ray Rodrigues; Carlos Trujillo; Robert Watkins; Susie Wile; Christian Ziegler

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