At noon on Monday, in the governor’s office at the state Capitol, nine Colorado Democrats will cast their Electoral College votes for President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris, sealing the decision by Colorado voters who gave the Biden/Harris ticket a 13-percentage point win over Republican President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence.

But the zeal of the electors for voting for Biden is matched only by the zeal by some for getting rid of the institution upon which they’ve been elected to serve.

“I would love to put the nail in the coffin of the Trump presidency,” said at-large elector Polly Baca of Denver, a former state senator, who, on Monday, will be a four-time Electoral College member.

Baca was one of three electors in 2016 termed “faithless electors” (or Hamilton electors, their preferred term)who tried in 2016 not to cast their votes for the winner in Colorado, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. It wasn’t that they didn’t support the Democratic candidate, but, rather, they had hoped to see enough electoral votes peeled away from Trump to deny him the victory, given that Clinton had won the popular vote by nearly 3 million ballots.

The lawsuit that followed went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, in a case combined with one from Washington state. The Court noted in its July ruling that when Americans cast ballots for presidential candidates, “their votes actually go toward selecting members of the Electoral College, whom each state appoints based on the popular returns.” The unanimous decision upheld the right of a state to enforce its pledge laws. 

While several Colorado electors believe the time has come to get rid of the Electoral College. that won’t stop them from casting votes Monday for Biden, who also was the popular vote victor by 7 million votes.

Baca told Colorado Politics that she believes in the vote, and trusts the American people as well as the national popular vote. “We should fulfill our democracy by allowing every single voter to vote their conscience, and that every vote should weigh equally.” Baca said that despite being an Electoral College member, she’s always opposed the Electoral College since it doesn’t always reflect the popular vote. 

“What I’ve been trying to do is bring attention to the lack of democracy that the Electoral College represents,” Baca said. “It’s not consistent with our values as a democratic nation.” 

Baca also addressed one issue that has become more prominent in this hyper-partisan era: threats. The state Democratic Party pulled the list of electors off its website, citing concerns about threats. 

Baca said she hasn’t gotten threats but is concerned about demonstrations on Monday. She supports peaceful protests — she’s participated in many over the years — but she also worries about pro-Trump demonstrators who she said could be armed.

Alan Kennedy, the other at-large elector, says he will walk from his Capitol Hill home to the Capitol on Monday. He also said he hasn’t gotten threats, but said Republicans have disagreed with him.

The first-time elector said he’s thrilled to cast his ballot for Biden and Harris. He decided to throw his hat into the ring because “the nation needs to relegate Donald Trump to the dustbin of history. These last four years have shown how delicate our democracy is,” Kennedy said.

He also believes it’s time to abolish the Electoral College. “We came horrifyingly close again to having a president win the Electoral College while losing the popular vote by millions of votes. That’s fundamentally undemocratic.” He said the Electoral College, too, is  undemocratic and with racist origins. “It’s a reminder that we do not have a presidential election that adheres to one person, one vote.”

Nevertheless, Kennedy feels an enormous responsibility to do everything possible to carry out the will of the voters in Colorado.

Trump has continued to contest the election, refusing to concede and, along with his allies, filing dozens of lawsuits in battleground state claiming fraud and seeking to overturn Biden’s 306 electoral vote victory. State courts at all levels have rejected the claims, and the U.S. Supreme Court on Friday refused to hear a lawsuit brought by the Texas attorney general challenging the validity of results in Wisconsin, Georgia, Pennsylvania and Michigan, all of which were won by Biden.

Kennedy, who teaches administrative law and about the Constitution as a doctoral candidate at CU-Denver, said his students have been very concerned about whether Trump could overturn the election. “I feel confident in saying that Monday’s (Electoral College) vote will put that to rest.”

The elector from Congressional District 3, who asked not to be identified by name prior to Monday’s vote, said being an elector is a great honor. “I’m a strong Democrat and supporter of the Biden/Harris ticket, and would love, even in this ceremonial role, to do something to support that.”

But she also believes the Electoral College should be abolished, calling it anti-Democratic (with a big D). “We already had a couple of elections in which people’s votes didn’t count, depending on where they lived. That’s unfair. One person’s vote should have the same weight as another.”

Nita Lynch, representing Congressional District 1,  is a first-time elector, although she’s been a national delegate for Vermont Sen. Bernie Sander in 2016 and 2020.

When Sanders dropped out of the presidential race, Lynch said she was disappointed, but it didn’t change her commitment to seeing a Democrat as president. By that time, the Supreme Court had also ruled on the faithless elector issue, and Lynch said she has no intention of going rogue. 

Lynch said she also favors abolishing the Electoral College. “It doesn’t fit with our democratic values of all votes counting equally,” she said. Lynch noted that under the current system, an Electoral College vote in Wyoming is worth three times as much as a vote in Texas or California or other large states. That type of system disenfranchises people, and “we already have low voting in our country,” the large turnout in 2020 not withstanding. Lynch added that she was glad Proposition 113 passed in November, which officially put Colorado into the National Popular Vote compact.

“This isn’t about me,” Lynch said, or about the nine electors, most of whom are relatively unknown and just “grassroots normal people who got vote in by our congressional districts. It does make me feel good about Colorado.”