The 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver just shut down any notion of eliminating the Electoral College and or having them vote based on the popular vote.

The court made a ruling on Tuesday that the secretary of state in Colorado actually violated the Constitution in 2016 after he removed an elector and nullified his vote because he refused to cast his ballot for Hillary Clinton who had won the popular vote.

What the court said was that members of the electoral college are not bound by the popular vote.

This means that no state can force them to vote for the candidate who wins the popular vote.

The Washington Times reported,

The 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Tuesday that the Colorado secretary of state violated the Constitution in 2016 when he removed an elector and nullified his vote when the elector refused to cast his ballot for Democrat Hillary Clinton, who won the popular vote.

It was not immediately clear what effect the ruling might have on the Electoral College system, which is established in the Constitution. Voters in each state choose members of the Electoral College, called electors, who are pledged to a presidential candidate. The electors then choose the president.

Most states require electors to vote for the candidate who won the popular vote in that state, but the Denver appeals court said the states do not have that authority.

This essentially kills the entire movement for states trying to move to the popular voting option.

At this point, the only way they stand a chance at removing the Electoral College is removing it from the Constitution altogether. But in order for that to happen, there must be a two-thirds majority vote in the both the House of Representatives and the Senate. Then there must also be a three-fourths majority vote in the states as well. That means that 38 states out of 50 must vote in favor as well.