Keep eye open for efforts to take away popular vote
By Pat Merloe / For The Fulcrum
When Americans vote for a presidential candidate, they are actually voting for a slate of people to represent their state in the Electoral College. What few Americans realize is that their state legislature could legally exercise the power to select the electors without holding a popular vote – or it could even ignore the people’s choice. Those are dangerous possibilities in this time of toxic polarization and empowered election deniers.
The Constitution’s electors clause (within Article II, Section 1) states: “Each state shall appoint, in such a manner as the Legislature thereof may direct a [specific] Number of Electors.” The clause does not specify that citizens have the right to choose the electors by a vote. In the earliest presidential elections, legislatures picked the electors without holding a popular vote. By 1864, every state required the people’s vote for electors, though that could change. The Supreme Court reminded us in its Bush v. Gore decision that there is no federal right for citizens to vote for president unless the state legislature grants it, and that power may be taken back.
Beware of new state laws concerning presidential electors: It is difficult to envision a state legislature eliminating presidential voting. The uproar from citizens would be formidable to say the least. Nonetheless, we should be wary of possible state laws providing that, where there is an election crisis — real or manufactured — the legislature would determine the electors or electors would be required to vote for the legislature’s choice of candidates.
Those who promote the independent state legislature theory would have us believe that legislatures may snatch back the power to pick electors at any time. Fortunately, there may well be legal constraints preventing such egregious actions.
https://www.heraldnet.com/opinion/comment-keep-eye-open-for-efforts-to-take-away-popular-vote/