Majority want Electoral College to delay vote over Russia hack

US President-elect Donald Trump speaks in Mobile, Alabama, on December 17, 2016. (Photo by AFP)

A majority of American voters want the Electoral College to delay the December 19 vote until electors can be briefed on Russia’s alleged interference in the presidential election, according to a new poll.

The survey, conducted by YouGov, found that 52 percent of voters favored the vote to be delayed. Also 46 percent of respondents were supportive of “faithless electors,” those members of the Electoral College who break with voters in their home state and vote for a different candidate.

The 538 electors will convene at governors’ offices and state capitols across the US on Monday to officially elect Donald Trump as the 45th president of the United States.

Under the US Constitution, the president is not elected through popular vote. Instead, American voters vote for members of the Electoral College who elect the president on the first Monday after the second Wednesday in December after the presidential election. A majority of 270 electoral votes are required to elect the president.

Though he lost the popular vote to his Democratic rival Hillary Clinton by nearly 3 million votes in the Nov. 8 election, Trump won enough states to claim 306 electoral votes to emerge as the victor.

This year’s Electoral College vote will come amidst what officials describe as a serious challenge to the legitimacy of the election process, including evidence of foreign intervention and influence.

After weeks of internal bickering, the consensus view within the US intelligence community now is that Russia interfered in the election through cyber attacks not just to destabilize the electoral system but to help get Trump elected.

The Kremlin has denied the allegations while calling for Washington to provide evidence of the Russian involvement.

Trump has also dismissed the intelligence assessment - first presented by the CIA - that Russia attempted to intervene to help him win the White House.

The growing distrust between Trump and the intelligence community he will soon command marks the latest in a series of disputes over Russia’s international conduct and its alleged ties with the president-elect.

Washington first publicly accused Moscow of a campaign of cyber operations against American political organizations in October but did not attribute motives at the time.

At a year-end press conference on Friday, President Barack Obama all but named Russian President Vladimir Putin as behind Moscow's alleged attempts to influence the election and vowed retaliations.

"Not much happens in Russia without Vladimir Putin," he said. "This happened at the highest levels of the Russian government."