SCOTUS RULES: States can remove 'faithless electors' who disregard voters

BY HARPER NEIDIG-

The nation's highest court on Monday ruled that states can prohibit their Electoral College representatives from disregarding voters when casting their ballots in presidential elections.

The Supreme Court justices handed down a unanimous decision, arising out of a case from Washington state, essentially gives states the right to outlaw "faithless electors" who cast their votes for people other than those chosen by voters.

Justice Elena Kagan wrote in the majority decision, "Nothing in the Constitution expressly prohibits States from taking away presidential electors’ voting discretion as Washington does."

More: TheHill.com

A handful of electors had cast their votes in 2016 for people who did not win their states' popular votes in a failed attempt to denyPresident Trumpan Electoral College majority. In the final vote tally, just seven of the 538 electors successfully chose someone other than their state's popular vote winner.

Three Democratic electors in Washington state voted for former Secretary of StateColin Powellinstead ofHillary Clinton, hoping that Republican electors would follow suit. The state fined them $1,000 each, prompting a legal challenge from the three officials, who argued that the state law restricting their Electoral College vote was unconstitutional.

The court also heard a similar challenge from a Democratic Colorado elector who was removed for casting his vote for former Ohio Gov. John Kasich (R) instead of Clinton. In light of the decision from the Washington state case, the court reversed an appeals court decision siding with the Colorado elector.


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