WASHINGTON (AP) – In a unanimous vote, The Supreme Court ruled Monday that states can punish presidential electors who don’t back their states’ popular vote winner in the Electoral College.
The ruling is a defeat for advocates of changing the Electoral College, who wanted a shift in the way the country elects its president toward a nationwide popular vote.
It leaves in place laws in 32 states and the District of Columbia that bind electors to vote for the popular-vote winner.
Electors typically do so anyway.
Four “faithless electors” election from Colorado and Washington state who went rogue in the 2016 election filed a lawsuit, arguing that states can only regulate how electors are chosen and not the outcome.
Faithless electors have not been critical to the outcome of a presidential election, but that could change in a race decided by just a few electoral votes.
It takes 270 electoral votes to win the presidency.
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