Supreme Court justices rule states can bind electors’ votes to back popular vote [Video]

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW:

• The Supreme Court in the U.S has decided on a ruling that obliges voters to back the leading choice of their state’s Electoral College.
• With only more than three months to go before the 2020 elections, the justices set to hear the arguments by spring.
• The Supreme Court then had a vital role in George W. Bush’s win against Al Gore in the 2000 presidential election recount.

On Monday, the U.S Supreme Court voted unanimously on a ruling which would require presidential electors to support the popular vote frontrunner in the Electoral College of its state.

The latest ruling, only less than four months before this year’s election, sets the laws amongst the  32 states in the U.S, including the District of Columbia that bind voters to pick the popular-selection winner, which electors generally do every election anyway.

While what they call as faithless voters are not usually vocal about the result of the presidential polls, this might change in an outcome plotted by just a few electoral votes.

For a presidential candidate to win, at least 270 electoral votes will be needed.

Justice Elena Kagan wrote on the court ruling that a state could initiate to electors that they have no basis for turning the selection of millions of its voters. The instruction is also by the Constitution, adding that in the U.S, the people’s choice rule.

The justices had planned oral arguments for the upcoming spring to have a resolution before the election.

When the justices convened hearing the arguments by teleconference in May due to the COVID-19 pandemic, they raised concerns about corruption and disorder if voters could cast their ballots even if their state’s poll outcome varies.

The dispute followed the charges filed by three Hillary Clinton voters in the state of Washington plus another elector in Colorado who did not want to choose her despite a majority choice for both areas.

By filing the lawsuit, they’re hoping to influence enough pollers in states where President Donald Trump won to vote someone else and deny him the position.

In Denver’s federal appeals court, they ruled that electors can choose anyone they want.

In Washington’s Supreme Court, they moved to deny the claims of the three electors slapped them with a $1,000 fine.

Overall, 2016 has ten faithless electors, which the fourth in Washington was a part of, Democratic vote in Hawaii,  and two Republican in Texas.

Two Democratic votes in Maine and Minessota were changed after they confirmed they’re not for Clinton.

The tightest Electoral College margin was during the 2000 race when George W. Bush had 271 votes against Al Gore’s 266.

The Supreme Court then had a crucial role in that poll, finishing with a Florida recount where Bush got a 537-vote lead out of 6 million casted ballots.

Source: AOL