This news comes from a post by Richard Winger titled “U.S. District Court Says Colorado Secretary of State Had the Power to “Fire” Presidential Electors Who Voted for Someone who Didn’t Win Popular Vote” on Ballot Access News.
“For the most part, [U.S. District Court Judge Wiley Daniel] based his opinion on a 1952 case, Ray v Blair. The U.S. Supreme Court in that case upheld an Alabama law that let political parties keep presidential electors off their primary ballots if they wouldn’t take a pledge to support the party’s nominees in the electoral college, should they be elected.
Ray v Blair does not settle the current case, because Ray v Blair is a case about the rights of political parties to control who runs in their primaries. Back in 1952, the Alabama Democratic Party chose its presidential elector candidates in a primary, something no state does currently. Parts of Ray v Blair suggest that presidential electors are free to vote for anyone they wish in December in the electoral college, but Judge Daniel said that is just dicta.
He also suggested that the Twelfth Amendment gives states authority to bind their presidential electors, but the Twelfth Amendment, which took effect in 1804, only tells presidential electors to vote separately for president and vice-president.”
Read the full article at Ballot Access News.
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