[EDINVA]

The point was that the legislature does not dictate how electors vote. The state legislatures are not authorized to “direct” its electors to vote for or against any candidate.

Given the Senators/Reps do not vote themselves as electors, they would, in effect, appoint them, recommending their party’s most active local folks to vote in their stead. Only the most partisan citizens ever get to be electors for either side. It’s all very ‘inside politics.’

But, as to WHO the electors are, with rules varying from state to state:

According to the U.S. Office of the Federal Register, “Generally, the political parties nominate electors at their State party conventions or by a vote of the party’s central committee in each State. Electors are often selected to recognize their service and dedication to their political party. They may be State elected officials, party leaders, or persons who have a personal or political affiliation with the Presidential candidate. Then the voters in each State choose the electors on the day of the general election. The electors’ names may or may not appear on the ballot below the name of the candidates running for President, depending on the procedure in each State.”

http://usgovinfo.about.com/library/weekly/aa120300a.htm

[conservatism_IS_compassion]

The point was that the legislature does not dictate how electors vote. The state legislatures are not authorized to “direct” its electors to vote for or against any candidate.

Given the Senators/Reps do not vote themselves as electors, they would, in effect, appoint them, recommending their party’s most active local folks to vote in their stead. Only the most partisan citizens ever get to be electors for either side. It’s all very ‘inside politics.’

. . . which generally turns out to be a distinction without a difference.

I am saying that a given state could, at the direction of its legislature, create a ballot without any electors who are pledged to Barak Obama. Or it could direct a particular Republican to name the electors - say, the governor, if s/he is a Republican, without any popular vote at all for the office of elector.

'Course any state whose legislature was ticked off enough to do that presumably would be so solidly Republican that there wouldn't be much doubt of the outcome of a popular vote, either . . .

I just kind of like the states' rights principle of the thing.