Peter M. Shane of Pittsburgh Live notes of Bush v. Gore:

“The individual citizen has no federal constitutional right to vote for electors for the president of the United States,” the court said, “unless and until the state legislature chooses a statewide election as the means to implement its power to appoint members of the Electoral College.”

Imagine, now, a state in which the same party controls both houses of the legislature and the governor’s office. There would presumably be no partisan impediment to the state Legislature, with the governor’s approval, deciding that the majority party in state government shall control the state’s electoral vote, regardless of any popular vote in the state. If the Supreme Court’s declaration is an accurate statement of the law, there would not be any legal impediment either.

He goes on to wonder:

What are the potential practical implications in 2004? One-party rule exists in 19 states, including four of the 10 states that the independent and well-respected political analyst Charlie Cook rates as “dead even.” Republican state governments in Florida, New Hampshire and Ohio, and Democrats in New Mexico, could spare us all some electoral suspense and simply decide their respective states’ electoral votes on their own. Such a move would give Democrats five of these contested votes and Republicans 51.

Of course, no state legislature would acutally DO it … right?