Originally Posted by Adraco

Yes, it has happened before and is know as "illoyal electorals".

Since they are actual people, whom are elected to cast their votes, they may, at their own free will, decide last minute to swing and vote for somebody else. It's not very likely, since they will then never be elected to vote again. In a close election like this, one or two votes might swing the whole presidency!

Yhe electoral system is flawed in many ways, one basic error, which the absolute majority, regardless of political color, can agree on, is the error of having an even number of electorals. With this, an electoral voting round might actually end up in a tie! Then the winner of the presidency will be decided by the Congress, under current condition that would mean Romney becomes president since the republicans control the majority in the Congress.

Another nummerical flaw is the even number, 100 in the Senate, since each state gets to send 2 Senators each. A tie here, means the Vice President gets the final vote. The Senate also confirms the Vice President, so should the electoral votes for President end in a tie and the Congress gets to appoint the new President, the Senate will get to appoint the new VP, which under current conditions would be Joe Biden since the Democrats control the Senate.

Then we would have a Republican President and a Democratic VP, Romney/Biden !

Among many things to hope and pray for today, let's hope that we do not end up with a complete tie among the electorals.