4 ms·
It was indeed intended to prevent populism; the idea is that instead of voting for the president you vote for a group of people who you trust to then choose a p
by gmoot 7y ago
It was indeed intended to prevent populism; the idea is that instead of voting for the president you vote for a group of people who you trust to then choose a president. But it has never in practice worked that way.
- rtkwe 7y agoAnd in fact many states electors are not legally allowed to do that any more. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faithless_elector https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faithless_elector
- justin66 7y agoThe question of whether faithless electors are allowed to be... faithless (ahem) is currently working itself through the courts, which is remarkable: https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2019/08/22/he-tried-stop-trump-electoral-college-court-says-his-faithless-ballot-was-legal/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2019/08/22/he-tried-st...
- rtkwe 7y agoInteresting, though this sounds like it would really hamper the idea of the national popular vote compact which I'm personally pulling for. And really calls into question the whole electoral system if the electors cannot be constrained by their states at all. Just bribe or threaten 271 people and the whole presidency is yours really since states can't invalidate faithless votes...
- justin66 7y ago> though this sounds like it would really hamper the idea of the national popular vote compact which I'm personally pulling for. I'm a supporter of NPV. I don't think it's likely to be a problem, although this feels like something that will shake out a lot further in the federal courts.