Specifically here, I'm referring to the Republican idea that legislatures should *ignore* the state's popular vote and send electors for Trump anyway, or the idea that Pence should have refused to certify and thrown it back to the House where Republicans have a state-number advantage.
First off, you have that backward. It was democrats in Democratic controlled states that have decided to vote for democrats even if the votes were in favor of Republicans. Also, you've forgotten how Hillary and Democrats tried to get Trump electors to vote for her. As it turned out, more Clinton electors voted for Trump than Trump electors voted for Hillary.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/in-last-shot-bid-thousands-urge-electoral-college-to-block-trump-at-monday-vote/2016/12/17/125fa84a-c327-11e6-8422-eac61c0ef74d_story.htmlFaithless electors in the 2016 United States presidential election
In the 2016 United States presidential election, ten members of the Electoral College voted or attempted to vote for a candidate different from the ones to whom they were pledged.[1] Three of these votes were invalidated under the faithless elector laws of their respective states, and the elector either subsequently voted for the pledged candidate or was replaced by someone who did.[2][3][4] Although there had been a combined total of 155 instances of individual electors voting faithlessly prior to 2016 in over two centuries of previous US presidential elections, 2016 was the first election in over a hundred years in which multiple electors worked to alter the result of the election.[1]
As a result of the seven successfully cast faithless votes, the Democratic Party nominee, Hillary Clinton, lost five of her pledged electors while the Republican Party nominee and then president-elect, Donald Trump, lost two. Three of the faithless electors voted for Colin Powell while John Kasich, Ron Paul, Bernie Sanders, and Faith Spotted Eagle each received one vote. The defections fell well short of the number needed to change the result of the election; only two of the seven defected from the winner, whereas 37 were needed to defect in order to force a contingent election in Congress (a tally of less than 270).[5]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faithless_electors_in_the_2016_United_States_presidential_election