I thought the idea of the electoral college is that all the electoral votes of a state go to the candidate that won the majority of that state. Now we're talking about REPUBLICAN electors? And a separate republican electoral vote? I am so confused, how does this work? Are the electora not REQUIRED to cast the vote as the popular vote in the state? If not, how do they end up doing that most of the time?
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Nope, the state legislatures decide what electors to send and the laws of the state can dictate how those electors must vote (or how much freedom they have). Faithless electors have been a thing for a long time, but the state legislatures can pass laws mandating electors vote a certain way. Basically the state legislatures can send whoever they want.b
Soooo... there was a story saying the Republican electors in Michigan and/or Pennsylvania (can't remember which) voted for Trump, even though officially the respective state went the other way.
What are they talking about?
Well that's some grey area. The previous legislature passed a law saying the governor picks the electors. And now the current legislature says, no JK we pick the electors, but the previous legislature passed it into law saying the governor picks the electors and the current legislature didn't pass any law, just a resolution... So it's very grey.
While they don't have the authority to override the other electors, it signals a still contested election and when Bidens electors are thrown out for fraud Trump's electors will be right there with foot in door.
In those states, two slates of electors were chosen, the "official" (Democrat) slate and the "alternate" (Republican) slate.
That way, after the Democrat electors' votes are thrown out by Mike Pence on Jan 6, that state will still be able to participate via its "alternate" electors.
There are 2 sets of electors. Depending on who wins the popular vote, that elector set is chosen by the legislature as required by the constitution.
Basically the Republicans decided there was too much shady shit going on and sent their own electors to contest them. "Dueling electors". This is actually how Nixon won. Honestly I think they only did it last min to make themselves seem useful. They know they fucked up when they didnt back Trump earlier. Now people are saying "Fuck the GOP" and "Sacrifice the senate"(Georgia senate run offs, they are refusing to vote for them. Rather let it all burn). They were chanting this in DC the other day during the protest.
Honestly, at this point I agree. Let it all burn. The GOP is useless anyways. Or hell, even culpable in some cases! What good are they? At least this way they suffer too.
Each party selects its electors, usually long before it's even known who the nominee will be. This is done at a Party meeting, usually the state convention.
If the Democrat in the race is chosen by the people, then the Democrat Party's electors participate in the Electoral College.
Likewise if the Republican candidate wins that state.
It's a Big Deal to be chosen to be an elector. Usually these roles are meted out to the most popular, the hardest worker, an older person they want to honor, etc.
In a presidential election each state gets a certain number of electors (humans) they are allowed to send to DC to vote for president. The legislature of that state gets to determine how those electors have chosen, currently most states use a winner take all system where the state agrees to send whatever electors the winning party has decided to send. There are a few states that divide it up so you see some states sending both R and D electors. These electors are not required to vote for a certain candidate (if they do not they are called faithless), but since they are chosen by the party it is unlikely they would vote for the other candidate, furthermore many states have passed laws requiring electors to vote for their party's candidate (this came into play 4 years ago when dems were pressuring Rep electors to be faithless and vote for Clinton).
Basically what is happening is that the Republican chosen electors are acting as if Trump had won, doing all the procedural stuff necessary, so that whenever the courts declare Trump as the winner they are ready to cast their votes and make it official.