Re: popular votes and elections

Seems clear now that electors can be made to vote for the winner of the popular vote of that state. Whether or not a State can require electors to vote for the winner of a national popular vote is still an open question.

The stronger argument is that such a system undermines the whole purpose of the electoral college, gives away that's state's electoral sovereignty and should be found unconstitutional. It'll only take a single election where the winner of the EC has it taken away by these shenanigans and create such chaos that it would result in a massive crisis. What types of rioting would we see if a blue state's electors would have to vote for the Republican who didn't win that state but won the popular vote? They'd burn down the state capitol.

Such a situation would result in chaos and mass-scale litigation in counties all over the country. It'd make Bush v. Gore look like a walk in the park and result in Florida-style recount nonsense all over the country if the popular vote were remotely close. Plus, there'd be tons of pressure to cheat from the get-go. Imagine very one-sided counties just padding their totals to help the national vote (knowing it wouldn't affect local elections). Under our current system the damage caused by that type of fraud can be limited and the incentives are parochial. When it goes to a "national popular vote" every vote, real or fake, counts.