Enter the law of unintended consequences..
There are currently several states that have passed laws to force their electors to vote for whomever wins the nationwide popular vote. From what I know those laws don't kick in until a certain number of other states go along... (16 states, i think)
So let's say a small state like Oklahoma decides it wants to fraudulently elect the next president. They produce election results that say Candidate XYZ received 30,000,000 votes and the results are certified by their SOS. Those 30M votes push the national popular vote to Candidate XYZ. Now those states like California and Colorado who voted to follow the popular vote, are by law required to certify their electors to vote for Candidate XYZ and by precedent (Texas filing) cannot do anything about Oklahoma's obvious fraud....
California forced to vote with Oklahoma... hahahahahahaha...
I think the states’ voting compact won’t kick in(or try to kick in) until they get enough states where electors at least = 270.