----Imagine if a State passed a law that said that a Congresscritter could not switch parties, and that he had to vote for the nomineee of his parties caucus for Speaker / Majority Leader.---- Irrelevant comparisons, since neither example has to do with the conduct of statewide elections.
Statewide? I don't know about W. Virginny, but in Texas electors are selected by House District, in the State Convention of each Party. The two electors that represent the our two Senators are picked by the COnvention ata large. There is no mandate that a State award Elecotrs based on state wide results, and Maine, for one, does not. Two electors are selected at large and the rest are awarded by House of Representative Distirct.
I'm not talking about the
selection of electors -- whom, the Constitution says, the states may pick in the manner they see fit -- or of the apportionment of electoral votes, which is also up to the states.
I am talking simply about the
actual ballot for president cast by the electors, and of the states' power to hold them accountable if they vote against the wishes of the popular majority in those respective states. I say the states have the right to require their electors to respect the will of the people; there is no Constitutional prohibition of this, and the Supreme Court has never taken up the issue.
-Dan