Court Decides Electoral College Members Not Bound by Election Results
The 10th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled last week that Electoral College members are free to vote for the presidential candidate they choose and can’t be bound by the popular vote in their respective states.
Some states have laws that punish so-called faithless electors for not voting for the candidate to which they pledged support, but there have long been legal questions about the enforceability of such laws. In May, the Washington State Supreme Court ruled in a separate case that electors could be fined for refusing to cast ballots for the candidate who won the popular vote in that state.
The new decision appears to call into question the viability of the National Popular Vote movement, a drive to create an interstate compact forcing presidential electors to cast their ballots for the candidate who wins the popular vote nationwide. The goal of the movement is to mandate the direct election of the president without having to amend the U.S. Constitution, a notoriously difficult task.
Hmmmmmmm?
I’m going to have to study this when I get back home.