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Should 'Faithless Electors' in US Presidential Polls Be Punished?

Masood Farivar

   WASHINGTON - In November 2016, shortly after Donald Trump was declared
   the winner of the U.S. presidential election, a handful of Democratic
   members of the Electoral College concocted a wild scheme to head off
   Trump's entry to the White House.

   The effort was rife with intrigue, as two Democratic electors, from
   Washington state and Colorado, sought to recruit other Democratic and
   Republican electors from around the country to deny Trump the minimum
   270 votes he needed to claim the presidency. In order to do this, those
   rebels needed to persuade other presidential electors to vote contrary
   to the popular will of their home states.

   The endeavor floundered. Now, nearly four years later and just months
   ahead of another contentious election featuring Trump, the U.S. Supreme
   Court is weighing whether such "faithless" members of the Electoral
   College can vote as they wish and whether states can punish them if
   they refuse to support the winning ticket in their states.

   The United States has an indirect presidential election system. When
   Americans cast their ballots for a presidential candidate, they are in
   fact electing members of the Electoral College, the arcane body that
   formally elects the president.

   The Electoral College has 538 members, corresponding to the number of
   senators and representatives from all 50 states plus three from the
   District of Columbia. They meet in their state capitals several weeks
   after the election to elect the president. To win the election, a
   candidate needs at least 270 electoral votes.

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