Good guys won today

This was a big disappointment, forcing pure democracy on republicanism.

Why is it a disappointment? States have A LOT of leeway on how they hold elections according to the Constitution. There's nothing stopping a state from passing a law that says, "electors can do whatever the fuck they want."

well in a hypothetical scenario, it allowed for a republic of representatives from the electoral college to ignore the laws and will of their state and its voters and instead deliberate with each other and decide their candidate in a smoke-filled room
but in that remote and contrived scenario I'm pretty sure heavily armed militias would storm D.C. and overthrow the illegitimate government within a fortnight.
back in the real world this was a decision with basically zero consequence

Elected representatives are literally jist one step removed from delegates. Should elected representatives be bound by law to vote strictly in accordance with their party platform?

It pretty much defeats the purpose of the electors if they can be made to vote how the state wants them to vote. For people who think the constitution should only function in accordance with the specific intention of the founders this is a giant departure from that.

Personally, I think a law to compel electors is a gross violation of the freedom of the elector, but I've yet to read the opinion.

The ruling says that unfaithful electors can be punished. It DOESN'T say they can be forced to be faithful electors.

I think that was a good ruling. Decided right between a rock and a hard spot.



/e Ruling that electors could be unfaithful with NO repercussions, would be a disaster. The bidding for electors would start instantly and continue till they were bought off.

This post was edited by Ghot on Jul 8 2020 05:02pm

It specifically says "Held: A State may enforce an elector’s pledge to support his party’s nominee—and the state voters’ choice—for President. Pp. 8–18."

So they definitely can force them to be faithful electors.

They state it explicitly here.

"And nothing in the Constitution expressly prohibits states from taking away presidential electors’ voting discretion as Washington does."

This post was edited by Thor123422 on Jul 8 2020 05:06pm

And yet all of this would be better if we just abolished the Electoral College.

Do we have a link for where it says that?

/e In other words... how do you force an elector to be faithful. You can easily punish them for being unfaithful.

This post was edited by Ghot on Jul 8 2020 05:17pm