Petition Calling For Electoral College to Vote for Hillary Clinton Is Now Most Popular in Change.org History

It now has 4.6 million supporters.
Image may contain Tie Accessories Accessory Clothing Apparel Coat Overcoat Suit Human Person and Tuxedo
US President-elect Donald Trump arrives to attend a Villains and Heroes themed costume party on December 3, 2016 on Long Island, New York, reportedly hosted by some of Trump's biggest donors. / AFP / Eduardo Munoz Alvarez (Photo credit should read EDUARDO MUNOZ ALVAREZ/AFP/Getty Images)AFP/Getty Images

Donald Trump won the U.S. presidential election, not because he got the most total votes — because Hillary Clinton has him beat on that, with more popular votes than anyone besides Barack Obama — but because he received the most electoral votes. And as we know, the electoral college is how the president is actually elected here in this country: While citizens throughout the country recognize Nov. 8 as Election Day, the day the actual presidency will be formally decided is Dec. 19, when the 538 electors cast their votes in the electoral college. After the electors cast their votes, Congress counts them and then announces the winner ahead of Inauguration Day.

And that's the heart of the petition that appeared on change.org shortly after Trump was declared president-elect — which has now become the most popular petition on change.org ever, The Independent reports. It's already got more than 4.6 million people who've signed it.

The goal of the petition can be boiled down to this: The organizers of the petition say Donald Trump is a threat to the U.S. Constitution, so electors should go into the Dec. 19 electoral college vote and cast ballots as “Conscientious Electors” (also sometimes called "faithless electors.") These electors would decide to go against voting for Trump although he may have won their geographic area, and instead vote for Hillary Clinton because they believe they would be preventing an unfit candidate from sitting in the Oval Office.

This attempt is somewhat of a long shot seeing as how some states have laws against electors who vote against the ballot they're pledged to, and also because the results of a presidential election have never been reversed due to conscientious electors. But with an election season that has been unprecedented in every way possible, who knows? And judging by the number of people who've signed the petition, it's clear there's a large segment of the American public who are at least somewhat hopeful.

Related: Donald Trump Is Blocking People on Twitter

Check this out: