Supreme Court justices fear "chaos" if members of the Electoral College can defy the popular vote

[Judi Lynn]

The Court’s pragmatic voices appeared to gain the upper hand in a case about “faithless electors.”

By Ian Millhiser May 13, 2020, 1:20pm EDT

When the Supreme Court heard arguments Wednesday over whether states can control “faithless electors” — members of the Electoral College who refuse to vote for their state’s winner of the popular vote — the justices didn’t divide along traditional partisan lines.

Chiafalo v. Washington and Colorado Department of State v. Baca, two consolidated faithless electors cases the Supreme Court heard on Wednesday, are unusual ones. They involve fundamental questions about how the United States conducts its presidential elections, but the cases are not especially ideological or partisan: Both the Republican National Committee and the Colorado Democratic Party filed briefs on the same side.

The state of Washington fines faithless electors, while Colorado removes and replaces faithless electors before they can cast a ballot. The question in both Chiafalo and Baca is whether states are allowed to exercise such control over members of the Electoral College after they are appointed.

In election-related cases, the justices often split along partisan lines, with the Court’s five Republicans preferring the outcome favored by the GOP, and its four Democrats dissenting. But, in Chiafalo and Baca, both political parties filed briefs opposing faithless electors and supporting states’ power to ensure that electors vote for the candidate they are pledged to support.

More:
https://www.vox.com/2020/5/13/21257296/supreme-court-electoral-college-faithless-electors-chiafalo-baca

[Renew Deal]

1. Sooner or later, someone is going to either create a tie or swing an election.

It's just a matter of time and circumstance. Will Americans accept that? Because that's what it's going to take to change things.

[mucifer]

2. What's to stop corporations and billionaires from bribing the electoral college?

[BComplex]

3. They probably already have. eom

[RKP5637]

4. Nothing at all. And IMO it basically already goes on now with Citizens United.

Now that corps are, well, just ordinary people with millions to contribute from corps to their bought faithful asset.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

6. Hillary won the election by 3 MegaVotes. Useless Electoral College swung the election.. . . . nt

[nykym]

5. This makes it clear

Abolish the Electoral College.
Popular Vote rules!