Supreme Court asked to decide if Electoral College voters are bound to the state's winner
October 8, 2019–"Three presidential electors in Washington state who voted for Colin Powell in 2016 rather than Hillary Clinton and were fined under state law, are asking the US Supreme Court to take up their appeal and decide whether a state can bind an elector to vote for the state's popular vote winner."
"'The original text of the Constitution," their lawyers argued in court papers filed Monday afternoon, "secures to electors the freedom to vote as they choose."'
"If the Supreme Court agrees to hear the appeal of the so-called "faithless electors," it could thrust the justices into yet another high-passion political fight in the heat of the 2020 presidential election. It comes as some predict that the volatile political atmosphere and disputes over redistricting could further emphasize the role of the Electoral College in the upcoming election."
CNN
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The Framers of the U.S. Constitution envisioned the electoral college as essential to maintaining our federalist system. The system calls for the creation, every four years, of a temporary group of electors equal to the total number of representatives in Congress. Technically, it is these electors, and not the American people, who vote for the president. In modern elections, the first candidate to get 270 of the 538 total electoral votes wins the White House.
They were dead set against letting the people elect the president by a straight popular vote. First, they thought voters lacked the resources to be fully informed about the candidates, especially in rural outposts. Second, they feared a headstrong “democratic mob” steering the country astray. And third, a populist president appealing directly to the people could command dangerous amounts of power.
Out of those drawn-out debates came a compromise based on the idea of electoral intermediaries. These intermediaries wouldn’t be picked by Congress or elected by the people. Instead, the states would each appoint independent “electors” who would cast the actual ballots for the presidency.
The Founders also assumed that most elections would ultimately be decided by neither the people nor the electors, but by the House of Representatives. According to the Constitution, if no single candidate wins a majority of the electoral votes, the decision goes to the House, where each state gets one vote. The rise of political parties in our winner take all system, which encourages a two party system, has sadly prevented this natural mechanism almost since the creation of the country. Only two U.S. elections have been decided by the House and the last one was in 1824.
In August of 2019, a federal appeals court decided members of the Electoral College may choose whomever they please regardless of a state’s popular vote.
The ruling by the United States Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit in Denver said Colorado was out of bounds in 2016 when it canceled the vote of a so-called faithless elector named Michael Baca. Mr. Baca, a Democrat, wrote in the name of John Kasich, a Republican who was Ohio’s governor at the time, even though Hillary Clinton carried Colorado, earning its nine electoral votes. The secretary of state replaced Mr. Baca with another elector who then voted for Mrs. Clinton.
“The text of the Constitution makes clear that states do not have the constitutional authority to interfere with presidential electors who exercise their constitutional right to vote for the president and vice president candidates of their choice,” the court majority wrote in a split ruling by a three-judge panel.
So now it goes to the Supremes.
So my assumption, since Republicans are fond of proclaiming that we are a "republic, not a democracy," is that the conservative SCotUS will ideologically be forced to find that electors can vote for whoever the hell they want because the rabble (you) doesn't know better.
If Trump lost to electors defying the will of dumb low information, conservative rural voters though...
Well, Republicans with any logical consistency would just shut up and accept the result. Only terrorists would defy our republican system and its outcomes. Right?
How do you all think the Supreme Court will decide? Will you shoot up a school if Trump isn't re-elected? Let us know below.