The Supreme Court will consider whether America’s 538 electors are free to deviate from their pledges
would like to abolish the electoral college, the idiosyncratic institution that picks presidents six weeks after election day. Twice this century, candidates who received more votes in the nationwide tally watched their rivals move into the White House the next January. But in 2016, when Hillary Clinton, the popular-vote winner, was vanquished by Donald Trump, another electoral-college flashpoint came to light.
These switches have never turned an election. But like the emoluments clauses, the rights of electoral-college members were a constitutional obscurity until the Trump era. Activists seeking to subvert Mr Trump’s victory in 2016 spurred seven electors to break their pledges—short of the 37 needed, but more than in any previous presidential election. Some defectors ran into legal trouble.
Congress, which tallies the electoral-college vote, has never refused to count faithless electors’ ballots. And until 2016, no state tried to stand in their way. But Washington state argues that the anomalous voters’ arguments “crumble under examination” and “pose dangerous risks for our democracy.” A Supreme Court ruling that turns electors into free agents—and subjects them to outside pressure following a close general election—could have “bizarre and dangerous consequences,” the state warns.
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