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If electors ‘dump Trump,’ then what is the point of having elections?

With apologies to the majority of our voting readers who cast ballots for Donald Trump several weeks ago, this message isn’t for you. This is directed toward those who opposed our president-elect in November and refuse to accept that he’ll soon reside at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.

And it’s not because we’re in a celebratory mood. After the way the election unfolded (and to be clear, we’re not talking about the result here), it’s hard to imagine anyone thinking this was healthy for America.

We understand why Hillary Clinton supporters feel as though they were given a raw deal. Clinton won the popular vote — and decidedly so, despite what Trump would have us believe — but was soundly defeated in the unofficial Electoral College tally.

But the manner in which we conduct our elections was in place long before this election started — say, more than 200 years before anyone knew who this year’s candidates would be. Those stipulations are in our Constitution, the document which is the basis for our government. The country only works if we all agree that the rules are the rules and they apply to everyone equally.

Trump won the election under the rules to which everyone agreed. He won it fair and square. We’re not asking everyone to like Trump. He is by no means the perfect president. But he is going to be the president — our president.

For those who believe it is a good idea for electors from states Trump won, including Pennsylvania — chosen by the public based on the premise they’ll vote for whomever they promised they would — to make a switch at the last minute and cast ballots for someone else, we ask you to look at the bigger picture.

Think about what it would mean if those electors went through with a plan to choose another person as president. It would mean the entire exercise of our democracy would have been pointless. But most importantly, it would set a precedent that would be far more impactful than any that has ever come down from the Supreme Court.

Imagine every presidential election from now until the end of humankind. No matter which party wins, the other side will immediately begin the endless barrage of messaging to the electors pledged to the winning candidate trying to get those people to “save the country” and elect someone other than the person the American people chose under our agreed-upon system. After all, if it happened once, it can happen again, right? That — not the swearing-in of Donald Trump on Jan. 20 — would be the beginning of the end of our country as we know it.

We are aware of the conspicuous lack of a Constitutional requirement forcing electors vote for whom they are pledged. That is there only as a last-resort safeguard against something truly unforseen.

We feel that “nuclear option” should only be used in the event the president-elect does something reasonable people agree is disqualifying, such as committing an act of treason. It’s not there to be used as a way to deny someone who has rightfully earned the presidency simply because some do not like him or her.

Was Trump the best choice for president? That’s debatable. Will Trump be a good president? Only time will tell. But what is not up for discussion is whether he deserves to be president because he won the election.

We hope when the votes are tallied in Congress in January, each of the 538 electors have done what they promised to do and cast ballots for the candidate to which they are pledged.

Because if the rightful winner doesn’t win, why do we even have a voting process in the first place?

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