Your friends have gotten a hold of a small piece of truth , and have extrapolated from there to a falsehood . It is true that electors can vote however they choose in some states . The concept of an elector voting against the choice of their state ' s popular vote is called a faithless elector . 29 of the states more than half , plus D . C . , have laws against faithless electors that is , in those states , the electors cannot vote as they choose . In some cases they theoretically could , but would face significant legal penalties , such as fines or prison time . Notably none of these states have ever had to enforce this . The other 21 states do not have any such laws , and electors theoretically could act faithlessly . Historically , there have been 157 cases of a faithless elector either voting for a candidate other than the choice of the state ' s popular vote , or abstaining from a vote . Note 157 may sound like a lot , but remember , there are currently 538 electors every election . It hasn ' t always been that big , but historically the number of faithless electors is a very small percentage of the total number of electors . Some of those have been in states which later passed laws against the practice . It is important to note , however , that faithless electors have never had an effect on the outcome of an election in all Presidential elections , the outcome with the faithless electors was the same as the outcome would have been without them . So yes , your friends are right that electors could ignore the popular vote of their state . But it ' s rare . And it ' s illegal in most states . And it ' s never amounted to anything . So you ' re right that your personal vote does matter in almost all cases , it has an impact on the votes your electors cast .