Republican Colorado Attorney General Cynthia Coffman on Monday announced that she would not prosecute a Colorado elector who defected in last year’s presidential vote.

Coffman’s decision came as a blow to Republican Secretary of State Wayne Williams, who expressed disappointment following the decision.

Elector Micheal Baca of Denver, a Bernie Sanders supporter, became one of a handful of national so-called “Hamilton Electors” in protesting the election of Republican Donald Trump.

Baca declined to back Democrat Hillary Clinton, who won the popular vote in Colorado, in an effort to block Trump and elect a compromise candidate. In doing so, Baca may have violated state law, which required him to back the candidate who won the popular vote in Colorado.

Coffman said Monday that she would not prosecute the so-called “faithless elector,” instead offering to focus on improving state statutes to “thwart any future efforts to undermine the voters’ intent.”

“My office has thoroughly investigated the circumstances surrounding this case,” Coffman said in a statement. “While the faithless elector intentionally sought to disrupt the election process and override the will of Colorado’s voters, he ultimately was unsuccessful. Thanks to the preparation and swift action of Colorado Secretary of State Wayne Williams, and attorneys from my office, Colorado’s voters were protected and their votes counted.”

Baca’s plan was to convince fellow electors to vote for someone other than Clinton or Trump, thereby handing the election to a compromise candidate. The true target was other states where Trump won. The goal was to convince at least 37 Republican electors to vote for someone other than Trump, which would have sent the responsibility of electing the president to Congress.

The effort failed, as Trump secured the Electoral College votes necessary to become the nation’s 45th president.

Two Colorado electors – Polly Baca of Denver, no relation to Michael Baca, and Bob Nemanich of Colorado Springs -filed lawsuits in an effort to free electors from having to vote for the candidate who won the popular vote. But federal and state courts, including the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals in Colorado, ruled against the electors, declining to grant them immunity from state law.

Despite taking an oath to vote for the candidate who won the popular vote, Michael Baca still defected, which Williams believed might have left him open to perjury charges.

“I am disappointed by the decision not to prosecute the faithless elector who flagrantly violated his oath immediately after taking it,” Williams said in a statement. “While it is true that we worked successfully with the political parties and the courts to stop his attempt to steal the votes of 2.9 million Coloradans, the decision not to prosecute leaves Coloradans without an assurance that future electors won’t hijack the will of millions of Colorado voters.”

Williams said his office would work with Coffman to “ensure enforcement in the future.”

Attorneys for Baca and other electors attempted to challenge the oath administered by Williams, but a Denver judge ruled that since the secretary of state’s office had administered the oath through rule-making, the electors had to take it in order to vote.

Despite the guidance from the judge, Baca wrote in Ohio Gov. John Kasich’s name, who he had hoped would become the compromise Republican candidate, despite Baca’s allegiance to Sanders. The idea was that Kasich would be better than Trump, albeit not the candidate Baca had hoped for in Sanders.

Baca was quickly relieved of his duties as an elector after he defected, and he was replaced with an elector who agreed to vote in accordance with the law. The other eight Colorado electors backed Clinton.

“The decision not to prosecute wasn’t reached lightly, and I in no way condone the elector’s reckless conduct,” Coffman, who is considering a run for governor, continued. “However, I am exercising my prosecutorial discretion so the individual cannot use our court system as a taxpayer-funded platform to capture more headlines and further flout the law.

“I have offered to work with Secretary Williams to evaluate options for strengthening Colorado’s election laws and procedures. Some of the potential solutions may include providing for the automatic disqualification of an elector and the immediate substitution of an alternate elector by operation of law, and voting for alternate electors at the same time as electors.”