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Pro-Donald Trump electors are receiving death threats ahead of Electoral College vote
Michigan Electoral College elector Michael Banerian. (Image source: WWLP-TV)

Pro-Donald Trump electors are receiving death threats ahead of Electoral College vote

As the Electoral College gets set to convene Monday to officially vote for president, some electors of President-elect Donald Trump have received extremely troubling messages — even death threats.

Michael Banerian, an elector from Michigan, is bound by Michigan state law to vote for Trump when the Electoral College meets Monday. Electors in 27 other states, plus D.C., have so-called "faithless elector" laws, which bind their state's electors to vote for the candidate the majority of their state's citizens voted for during the general presidential election.

Still, that hasn't stopped people from all across the country from sending Banerian messages to plea that he not vote for Trump.

Banerian recently told CNN that messages have poured into his social media accounts and his mailbox. And in just the last week alone, he's received more than 2,000 snail-mail messages. And while most of them are tame, others are not.

"I’ve had death wishes, people just saying 'I hope you die. Do society a favor, throw yourself in front of a bus.' And just recently, I was reading a blog about me, and unfortunately these people not only called for the burning of myself, but my family, which is completely out of line," he said.

Banerian added that he thinks the pressure to vote against Trump is hypocritical because had Hillary Clinton won the election, there likely wouldn't be the same outcry about the Electoral College and its electors.

"It’s utter hypocrisy, because I don’t think if the roles were reversed, most of these people would be OK with electors being faithless and voting for anyone other than Hillary Clinton, had she won," he said.

And while Banerian can't go rogue — meaning he must vote for Trump on Monday — electors in 22 other states can, and they're undoubtedly feeling the pressure to do so.

More from CNN:

Anti-Trump groups are not letting up, posting the names and addresses of 283 electors on the internet, and encouraging people across the country to write the electors asking they vote against Trump.

The group "Hamilton Electors" is leading the charge to block Trump from 270 electoral votes. They say at least 20 electors are on board, but they need 37 for the election to go to the House of Representatives.

In addition, Hollywood stars and Harvard law professor Larry Lessig are pressuring electors to vote against Trump. Lessig has even assembled a group of lawyers to give pro bono legal counsel to any elector in a Trump state seeking to vote against him.

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