Comment by cmurf

>But I'd imagine that the states that dropped out of the election would actually get zero votes, and and those would be the states most closely aligned with the president.

Right. So you can't assume that outcome. You have to figure out some edge case that would cause toss up states to either drop out, or have their Electors challenged. I think it's less likely a state cancels elections, than having their Electors challenged, even though neither has happened.

>But if it got to the red states picking that, would they be obligated to pick an official presidential candidate?

Yes 11th amendment. House must choose from the top three receiving EC votes.