‘Proud Conservative’ is absolutely wrong. Ask any election official in your state or local area.
States can indeed award their electoral votes as they see fit. This is stated directly in the Constitution.
There is a movement underway to award a decisive 270 electoral votes based upon the nationwide popular vote. As of now, states comprising 165 EVs have agreed that if they can increase the membership to cover 270 EVs, they will all award EVs based on the popular vote.
This goes against the spirit of the Constitution, which sought to disperse power among branches and levels of government. If the original intention was to award EVs based on the results in a given state, that should be maintained. For instance, the electoral votes allotted to North Carolina should be awarded based on the vote outcome in that state, not depending upon what happens in the nation as a whole, which these days is severely influenced by the vote patterns in California and New York.