Can members of the Electoral College vote in opposition of their state's popular vote if they deem the president-elect unfit to serve?
Upvote:1
Mostly it is true, yes. The only issue is that electoral votes are tallied by state, not by person. That means it would be difficult to enforce this, unless the state passes a law to make sure they know, or unless the entire state delegation was "faithless", or the guilty party admitted to it.
This actually happened in 2004.
An anonymous Minnesota elector, pledged for Democrats John Kerry and John Edwards, cast his or her presidential vote for John Ewards [sic], rather than Kerry, presumably by accident. (All of Minnesota's electors cast their vice presidential ballots for John Edwards.) Minnesota's electors cast secret ballots, so unless one of the electors claims responsibility, it is unlikely the identity of the faithless elector will ever be known. As a result of this incident, Minnesota Statutes were amended to provide for public balloting of the electors' votes and invalidation of a vote cast for someone other than the candidate to whom the elector is pledged.
Also, the penalty for being an unfaithful elector is entirely up to the state in question. They could even make it a criminal offense if they wanted to, although I'm not aware of a state that has done that.
The original idea behind the Electoral College was to avoid direct Democracy. States would select electors, who were supposed to be wise upstanding men who could be trusted to make the choice themselves. They were not supposed to be people who promised to make a particular choice beforehand, lest they not be selected. Also, states were not required to hold elections at all. Some just had their legislatures pick electors. We've spent the last 250 years essentially trying to hack direct Democracy back into this system.
More post
- 📝 Were non-pharaos under "no incest" marriage limitations in Ancient Egypt?
- 📝 Why wouldn't the South make salt from seawater during the American Civil War?
- 📝 Why did India choose August 15th as its Independence Day?
- 📝 How can I find the most complete list of the names of Kaytn Massacre victims?
- 📝 Was there any urbanisation in ancient South India?
- 📝 How did medieval cities get rid of waste?
- 📝 How exactly did most nobles gain wealth?
- 📝 Did humans live more densely in the past, and if so, how much denser?
- 📝 Why did George McClellan fail to act?
- 📝 How did Native Americans refer to themselves in the 19th century?
- 📝 Would an illegitimate child of a monarch have been recognized at the Russian court?
- 📝 What is this Tiger tank wingman UGV?
- 📝 Did people ever pour drinks on the floor to reject a toast or indicate an end to civilities?
- 📝 What is the current state of historical thought on the Aryan invasion/migration theory?
- 📝 chests for transporting bedding furnishings (and mattresses)
- 📝 How were settlers' houses in Kamchatka built?
- 📝 What social relationships existed between the popular mobility and the political elites in the revolutionary American colonies?
- 📝 How do Tamahagane, Damascus, and Toledo Steel compare?
- 📝 How to find regulations for charities in Victorian England?
- 📝 When did the Ciboney arrive on Cuba and displace the Guanahatabey?
- 📝 How was the modern geographic boundary between Europe and Asia decided?
- 📝 Were there cases where an ethnic newspaper had the highest circulation in a country?
- 📝 How heavy were the heaviest war hammers actually used?
- 📝 Is there a difference between original 1768-71 and 1968-71 facsimile of 1st edition Encyclopaedia Brittanica
- 📝 Please outline how Philip II gained Normandy from the Third Crusade
- 📝 Did men carry talisman on them against threats or to bring luck during Medieval Times?
- 📝 What did Thomas Jefferson say about "what I say now is only valid now; I can change my thoughts?"
- 📝 How and why did limerence come to be idolized as it is in modern Western society?
- 📝 In Viking combat, how much damage was done using the shield?
- 📝 Was there any war won by the victim without sending forces to lands/seas/air of the attacker?
Source: stackoverflow.com
Search Posts
Related post
- 📝 Can members of the Electoral College vote in opposition of their state's popular vote if they deem the president-elect unfit to serve?
- 📝 In the United States government, has there been cases that electoral colleges don't vote for the candidate the majority of their state voted for?
- 📝 History of ways of choosing members of the electoral college
- 📝 Has there ever been a serious effort to reform the US Electoral College system?
- 📝 Can history shed any light on the "secret arts" of the Egyptian magicians who turned their staffs into serpents as claimed by Exodus 7:11-12?
- 📝 Did the founding members of the Black Panthers ever mention the role of Malcolm X in creating their group?
- 📝 How close did the US come to removing the Electoral College in 1970?
- 📝 Was an Elector part of the Electoral College for purposes of a Reichstag, if he was the Emperor of the HRE?
- 📝 What was the first college in an English-speaking country to use Latin in their motto?
- 📝 When was the concept of electoral districts / constituencies with their own borders (as opposed to pre-existing towns/counties) invented?
- 📝 Where can I find data on the amount of fuel carried by WWII Warships and what their operational ranges were?
- 📝 Where did the Romans store their cash?
- 📝 How did the ancient Romans count with their fingers?
- 📝 Why did the Soviet Union name their strongest bomb Tsar Bomba?
- 📝 Which monarch had the longest break in their reign?
- 📝 How did early adopters of the automobile fill up their cars?
- 📝 Were Russians in the cold war era USA discriminated against for their ethnicity?
- 📝 Did any British working class men have the vote before 1918?
- 📝 Why do revolutions "eat their own?" What is the sociological dynamic here?
- 📝 Given their reputation for fighting to the last man in the Pacific, why did 700,000 Japanese troops surrender in Manchuria?
- 📝 Did the Persian Immortals instill fear in their Greek adversaries?
- 📝 Historically, why did the US station their nuclear weapons in Germany for delivery through German pilots?
- 📝 How heavily were the British taxing their American colonies?
- 📝 Can the Queen of England fire the prime minister of Australia?
- 📝 Why did Jodrell Bank assist the Soviet Union to collect data from their spacecraft in the mid 1960's?
- 📝 Has any U.S. Vice President cast a tie-breaking vote against their own administration?
- 📝 Can anyone identify the military branch and rank of the man in the front row? This is from Germany @1932
- 📝 Why did the Chinese Nationalist party members go to the island of Taiwan and not to any other island?
- 📝 Why did John Ganson vote contradictorily on the 13th Amendment?
- 📝 Why did US Navy WW2 torpedoes detonate at the end of their run?