sdA in SDSS DR12 are Overwhelmingly Not Extremely Low-Mass (ELM) White Dwarfs

In a search for new white dwarfs in DR12 of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, Kepler et al. (2016) found atmospheric parameters for thousands of objects with effective temperatures below 20,000 K and surface gravities between 5.5 < log(g) < 6.5. They classified these objects as cool subdwarfs -- sdA -- and speculated that many may be extremely low-mass (ELM) white dwarfs (helium-core white dwarfs with masses below 0.3 Msun). We present evidence -- using radial velocities, photometric colors, and reduced proper motions -- that the vast majority (>99%) of these objects are unlikely to be ELM white dwarfs. Their true identity remains an interesting question.