Morning Distribution for Tuesday, June 16, 2020

A [FiveThirtyEight]( email [Morning Distribution]( Tuesday, June 16, 2020 Your daily briefing from FiveThirtyEight --------------------------------------------------------------- The Morning Story [Electoral College Voters Cast Ballots Amid Protests]( [If The Supreme Court Lets The Electoral College Vote However It Wants, Will Chaos Ensue?]( By [Josh Putnam]( Last month the Supreme Court [heard oral arguments]( in a case challenging state laws that bind Electoral College electors to vote for the presidential candidate they are selected to support. The case was brought in response to four 2016 electors — three from Washington and one from Colorado — who tried to vote against their state’s popular vote winner, and, in the case of the Washington electors, faced fines for having broken their pledges. These so-called “faithless electors” have long been a feature of American presidential elections, but it’s possible that the Supreme Court could shake up the Electoral College system, striking down state laws that try to guarantee electors’ votes by replacing or punishing those who don’t vote as they promised to. Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg said the overall lack of enforcement of electors’ pledge to vote for the winner of their state troubled her, saying, “I made a promise to do something, but that promise is unenforceable.” But Justice Samuel Alito said that overturning the state laws could “lead to chaos where the popular vote is close.” There is some truth to that. In a system where a close national popular vote can produce a close-but-different Electoral College outcome, a handful of electors refusing to uphold their pledges could indeed sow chaos. There is already controversy surrounding the Electoral College and its election of George W. Bush in 2000 and Donald Trump in 2016 — neither won the popular vote. Adding in a few faithless electors who could flip the outcome of the election might pose a significant threat to the Electoral College’s continued legitimacy. Yet, the history of presidential elections is not exactly littered with faithless electors. [Read more]( --------------------------------------------------------------- The Latest Data How popular is Donald Trump? [How popular is Donald Trump?]( --------------------------------------------------------------- Weekly Listen [Play]( [Politics Podcast: Public Opinion Of The Black Lives Matter Movement Has Shifted. What Happens Next?]( [FiveThirtyEight] [View in browser]( [ABC News]( [Unsubscribe]( Our mailing address: FiveThirtyEight, 47 West 66th Street, New York, NY 10023.