Dem elector floats rejecting Clinton

A Democratic elector in Washington says that if his party’s presidential nominee, Hillary Clinton, wins the state, he may shirk his duty to cast his vote for her in the Electoral College.

“How can I say and do and be who I am and then cast a vote for somebody that’s the same as [GOP nominee Donald] Trump?” Robert Satiacum Jr. asked Politico in an interview published Wednesday.

{mosads}“They may be male, female, but they’re in the same canoe. I have to either step down from being this thing I was elected to be or I’ve got to step down from being myself. That’s the teeter totter I’m on.”

Satiacum said he distrusts Clinton’s environmental policies, which he calls “crimes against our mother, this Earth.”

Satiacum, an activist member of Washington’s Puyallup Tribe, is one of 12 Democrats designated to cast electoral votes for Clinton should she win the state. Clinton is expected to easily carry Washington, where she leads by double digits. The state has gone Democratic in the last seven presidential elections.

State law requires Washington electors to sign a pledge to the secretary of state, with violations carrying a $1,000 fine.

“In our conversations with our electors and in the pledge they have signed, they have committed to uphold their responsibility and vote for the Democratic nominee for president,” said party spokesman Marc Siegel.

“We are confident that Hillary Clinton will win the presidency and that our other down ballot candidates will win election.”

Satiacum said the penalty is “not even a factor” while he considers a final decision ahead of Election Day.

“There’s 16 other souls that have the future ahead of them,” he said, referencing his six children and 10 grandchildren. “Sixteen other lives and souls I’m considering when I say, ‘No, I’m not going to vote for her.’ “