Quote Originally Posted by Constitution of the United States of America, Article II, Section 1, Clause 2
Each State shall appoint, in such Manner as the Legislature thereof may direct, a Number of Electors, equal to the whole Number of Senators and Representatives to which the State may be entitled in the Congress: but no Senator or Representative, or Person holding an Office of Trust or Profit under the United States, shall be appointed an Elector.
Trump's efforts to have state legislatures select electors and functionally obviate the vote may, in the most literal sense, fall within the framework of the Constitution -- which empowers the state legislatures to select electors. Most states have enacted laws that obviate "faithless" electors link, including AZ and MI, making it impossible for the college itself to be "gamed" simply by bribing electors or what not. Only by getting the legislatures to obviate the vote and select electors of their choice -- which would violate state laws in many cases, regardless of constitutionality -- would allow the College vote to be shifted to a Trump win or a tie vote (also a Trump win as the GOP controls 26 of the 50 states in the US HofR).

So far, the legislatures appear to be telling Trump to 'piss up a rope.' As they should. Trump's efforts along this line are anathema.

The Electoral College -- enacted to minimize tyranny of the majority and to work against Demagoguery -- is being subverted into a tool to do precisely the opposite. Trump's blind ambition will, I hope, create the impetus needed to amend the College back to its original concept (one elector from each federal HofR district selected by majority from that district; two votes designated by the legislature as they deemed fit). That version never quite made it into the document and though they did attempt to improve the early inanities with the 12th amendment, they sowed the seeds for the potential debacle we see today).

I like the concept of the college to prevent the problems associated with a tyranny of the simple majority (which could well devolve into "Cities rule, country-folk should stfu.") Yet it is clear that, as framed, a would-be dictator has a chance to not merely game the system of EC votes but to suborn it entirely. This is unacceptable.