Yes and no. If the VOTE, when held in December to confirm the results announced on election night, is 269-269, the electors cease to matter. However, the official result of the electoral college vote is decided when the 538 electors actually cast their ballots in early December.
Normally this is a non-event and garners little attention. But it is this vote which legally and constitutionally decides who will be the next president, not the one on November 6.
It’s not unheard of for one of a state’s electors to fail to vote as they promised: it’s happened on a dozen or so occasions since WW2, either in presidential elections or party nomination conferences. See
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faithless_elector
However, it’s never actually mattered before so doesn’t get much attention. In a nominal 269-269 tie, it’d suddenly matter a great deal...
Ouch. Knowing the Chicago gang, it wouldn’t surprise me if an elector
found a dead fish on his front doorstep one morning (or worse).