In a major blow to state-by-state progressive efforts to effectively replace the Electoral College with a nationwide popular vote, a federal appeals court ruled on Tuesday that presidential electors have the absolute right to vote for presidential candidates of their choice
The decision, however, also raised the prospect that electors could dramatically defect at the last minute, and decide the occupant of the White House on their own, weeks after Election Day
 The 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals held that the Colorado secretary of state violated the Constitution in 2016 when he removed an elector and nullified his vote because the elector refused to cast his ballot for Democrat Hillary Clinton, who won the popular vote both nationally and in Colorado
 The rogue elector was part of an unsuccessful scheme to convince enough members of the Electoral College to unite behind an alternative candidate and deny Donald Trump the presidency
 AOC UNDER FIRE FOR CALLING ELECTORAL COLLEGE RACIST The split decision by a three-judge panel on the Denver appeals court asserted: "Article II and the Twelfth Amendment provide presidential electors the right to cast a vote for President and Vice President with discretion
 And the state does not possess countervailing authority to remove an elector and to cancel his vote in response to the exercise of that Constitutional right
 "The electoral college did not exist before ratification of the federal Constitution, and thus the states could reserve no rights related to it under the Tenth Amendment," the panel continued
 "Rather, the states possess only the rights expressly delegated to them in Article II and the Twelfth Amendment
" The appeals court reasoned that once electors show up at the Electoral College, they essentially become federal actors performing a "federal function," independent of state control
 Prominent Democrats, including Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, have slammed the Electoral College in recent weeks, calling it a racist "scam," and Democrats have increasingly sought to erase its influence
 The so-called National Popular Vote interstate compact, which would commit states' electors to the winner of the national vote, has been adopted by 16 jurisdictions, accounting for 196 electoral votes, including 15 states and the District of Columbia
 However, the compact, by its terms, will only take effect if jurisdictions accounting for at least 270 of the 538 total votes available in the Electoral College sign on
 More than two dozen states also have laws binding electors to the results of the popular vote in those states
 The Tuesday ruling could spell doom for a new Colorado law that effectively signed the state onto the national compact, by prohibiting states from forcing their electors to vote for either the national or state popular vote winner
 Other states that have signed onto the compact include Rhode Island, Vermont, Hawaii, Delaware, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Mexico, Washington, Connecticut, New Jersey, Illinois, California, and New York
 At the same time, Frank McNulty, an adviser to Protect Colorado's Vote, which wants voters to overturn the law, cautioned that the ruling could also free electors to decide on their own to support the candidate with the most votes nationally
 "It is a double-edge decision," he said. ANALYSIS: IN DEFENSE OF THE ELECTORAL COLLEGE The Electoral College system is established in the Constitution
 When voters cast a ballot for president, they are actually choosing members of the Electoral College, called electors, who are pledged to that presidential candidate
 The electors then choose the president. Electors are selected by state parties at nominating conventions, and generally consist of party leaders, activists, and other luminaries
 Democrats, who currently have a stranglehold on power in population-dense states like California and New York, have long protested the Electoral College
 States receive electoral votes equivalent to their number of congressional districts plus senators, which allows less populous states to have more impact than they would under a popular vote system
 The upcoming 2020 census is expected to result in some shifts in Electoral College numbers by 2024, including an increase in electoral votes for traditional GOP strongholds like Texas
 Tuesday's ruling applies only to Colorado and five other states in the 10th Circuit: Kansas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Utah and Wyoming
 But it could influence future cases nationwide in the unlikely event that enough Electoral College members strayed from their states' popular vote to affect the outcome of a presidential election, constitutional scholars said
 The elector at the center of the case, Micheal Baca, was part of a group known as "Hamilton electors" who tried to convince electors who were pledged to Clinton or Donald Trump to unite behind a consensus candidate to deny Trump the presidency
 After a flurry of filings in state and federal courts, the electors met on Dec. 19, 2016, and Baca crossed out Clinton's name on his ballot and wrote in John Kasich, the Republican governor of Ohio who also ran for president
    FILE - In this Dec. 19, 2016, file photo, Colorado elector Micheal Baca, second from left, talks with legal counsel after he was removed from the panel for voting for a different candidate than the one who won the popular vote, during the Electoral College vote at the Capitol in Denver
 Colorado Secretary of State Wayne Williams, front right, looks on. On Tuesday, Aug
 20, 2019, the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that Williams violated the Constitution when he removed Baca from the panel
 (AP Photo/Brennan Linsley, File)    Then-Secretary of State Wayne Williams refused to count the vote and removed Baca as an elector
 He replaced him with another elector who voted for Clinton. Colorado's current secretary of state, Jena Griswold, decried the ruling Tuesday in Colorado but did not immediately say if she would appeal
 "This court decision takes power from Colorado voters and sets a dangerous precedent," she said
 "Our nation stands on the principle of one person, one vote." Baca's attorneys said the U
S. Supreme Court will likely hear the case because it conflicts with a decision from Washington state's Supreme Court
 That court said in May that electors could be fined for not casting ballots for the popular vote winner
 DEMS' NATIONWIDE EFFORT TO SHORT-CIRCUIT ELECTORAL COLLEGE HITS ANOTHER ROADBLOCK Constitutional scholars were skeptical, saying a conflicting opinion from a state court system has less influence on the Supreme Court than one from another federal appeals court
 No other federal appeals court is believed to have ruled in a similar case. The court ruling in Denver could be important if a future Electoral College is so ly divided that a handful of "faithless electors" change the outcome by casting a ballot contrary to the popular vote, said Ned Foley, a professor at Ohio State University's law school
    Jan. 6, 2017: Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., holds up a written objection to the Electoral College vote and calls on a Senator to join in the objection during a joint session of Congress to count the electoral ballots, on Capitol Hill in Washington
   (AP) "This opinion would be taken very seriously," he said. "It would be considered judicial precedent
" Meanwhile, parallel congressional efforts to usurp the Electoral College have been unsuccessful
 In January, Rep. Steve Cohen, D-Tenn., introduced a pair of constitutional amendments to eliminate the Electoral College, saying it was "outdated
" “Americans expect and deserve the winner of the popular vote to win office,” Cohen said at the time
 “More than a century ago, we amended our Constitution to provide for the direct election of U
S. Senators. It is past time to directly elect our president and vice president.” However, a constitutional amendment eliminating the Electoral College would require two-thirds of both the House and Senate to approve the measure, along with three-fourths of state legislatures
 Alternatively, Congress could hold a national convention and states could host ratifying conventions, but a two-thirds majority would still be necessary
 CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP Trump secured victory in the 2016 election by winning the Electoral College with 304 votes to Clinton’s 232 despite Clinton winning nearly three million more votes than Trump
 John Quincy Adams, Rutherford B. Hayes, Benjamin Harrison, and George W. Bush also won the White House without winning the popular vote
 Of those presidents, only Bush was re-elected to a second term. Fox News' Ronn Blitzer and The Associated Press contributed to this report
  
