-—I have always been curious what keeps electors in line - hopefully you can explain it to me.——
What keeps them in line is Party loyalty which is very strong at the Fed election level. Meaning that nobody (as you said) wants to be the faithless vote that ruins the election for their own party. Even a Romney-type wouldn’t go so far as to be the deciding vote to sabotage the EC against their own Party. Voting on bills or sucking up to the media is one thing. Ruining their career completely is something else.
-—But that ultimate accountability to constituency does not prevent RINOs from being RINOs - so I don’t understand why you are so convinced it would not happen with electors.-—
It’s not that it’s theoretically impossible, it’s that the election would have to be incredibly close, and you’d need enough to be willing to stick their neck out to change the outcome. Not just an EC protest vote when they know the thing is decided.
Mccains, Romneys and Flakes are unusual, and there wouldn’t be enough fellow-traveling EC voters who would agree with them and be brave enough to vote to swing it.
I just don’t see it as a practical or likely possibility that needs to be worried about.
There certainly does seem to be something keeping electors faithful...
Is there perhaps some sort of impeachment or recall process that voters can resort to if faithlessness of electors is in danger of turning an election?