US Electoral College Voters Must Back Their Presidential Candidates - Supreme Court

US Electoral College Voters Must Back Their Presidential Candidates - Supreme Court

Members returned to the US Electoral College in presidential elections are not free to exercise their own discretion and switch support to other candidates according to the Constitution of the United States, the Supreme Court said in a unanimous opinion on Monday

WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 06th July, 2020) Members returned to the US Electoral College in presidential elections are not free to exercise their own discretion and switch support to other candidates according to the Constitution of the United States, the Supreme Court said in a unanimous opinion on Monday.

"[N]othing in the text or structure of Article II and the Twelfth Amendment contradicts the fundamental distribution of power preserved by the Tenth Amendment," the justices said. "[T]he powers reserved to the states concerning presidential electors cannot be exercised in such a way as to violate express constitutional commands."

The justices upheld the decision by the US states of Washington and Colorado to penalize Electoral College members in the 2016 presidential election who had broken their commitment to vote for Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton after she won majorities in the popular vote.

"Where the Constitution is silent about the exercise of a particular power, the Federal government lacks that power and the states enjoy it. ... This allocation of power is apparent in the structure of our Constitution," the ruling explained.

The ruling means that members sent to the Electoral College to vote for the specific candidates who won the popular vote in the national presidential election are not free to switch their support to other candidates when the body convenes to ratify the outcome.