SCOTUS unanimously rules presidential electors can’t go rogue

The U.S. Supreme Court in a unanimous 9-0 decision, supporting the Constitution, ruled Monday that states can pass laws that punish so-called “faithless electors” who refuse to cast an official ballot for the winner of that state’s popular vote. Read the decision in Chiafalo et al  v. Washington.

Members of the Electoral College are selected on a state-by-state basis, and according to the U.S. Constitution, are required to cast their official state ballots for whichever presidential candidate wins the plurality of their state’s popular vote.

Without the Electoral College, the few most populous states would elect the president. The Electoral College system alleviates the imbalance of the popular vote based on where people live, assigning a number of electors to each state that corresponds with the congressional delegation from each state and mandates that the electors of that state vote the way the people of that state voted in the election. Arizona, with 9 congressional districts and the requisite two senators, is allotted 11 electors.

The U.S. House of Representatives provides these facts on the Electoral College.

In 2016,10 of the 538 presidential electors went rogue, attempting to vote for someone other than their pledged candidate. The electors, who received $1,000 fines for dereliction of duty, eventually brought the suit that reached the Supreme Court.

Ultimately, Donald Trump won the election with 304 electoral votes to 227 for Hillary Clinton.