U.S. Electoral College

The United States Electoral College is the electoral college which chooses the President and Vice President of the United States at the conclusion of each Presidential election. The Electoral College was established by Article Two, Section One of the U.S. Constitution and meets every four years with electors from each state. The electoral process was modified in 1804 with the ratification of the 12th Amendment and again in 1961 with the ratification of the 23rd Amendment.

Faithless electors

On 157 occasions from 1796–2004, presidential electors have cast their vote in a different manner than that prescribed by the popular election results for the state or district they represent. Of those, 71 votes were changed because the original candidate died before the elector was able to cast a vote. Three votes were not cast at all when Electors chose to abstain from casting their Electoral vote for any candidate. The remaining 83 were changed by the elector's personal interest or perhaps by accident. Usually, the faithless electors act alone. An exception was in 1836 when 23 Virginia electors changed their vote together. Still, no faithless elector has ever changed the outcome of any election.

Related Topics:
1796 - 2004 - 1836 - Virginia

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There are laws to punish faithless electors in 24 states. While no faithless elector has ever been punished, the constitutionality of state pledge laws was brought before the Supreme Court in 1952 (Ray v. Blair, 343 US 214). The court ruled in favor of state's right to legally require electors to vote as pledged, as well as remove electors who refuse to pledge. As stated in the ruling, electors are acting as a function of the state, not the federal government. Therefore, states have the right to govern electors.

Related Topics:
Supreme Court - 1952 - Ray v. Blair

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Recent incidents of faithless electors include:

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• 2004 election: A Minnesota elector, pledged for Democrats John Kerry and John Edwards, cast his/her presidential vote for "John Ewards" (sic), apparently accidentally. (All of Minnesota's electors cast their vice-presidential ballots for John Edwards.) Minnesota's electors cast secret ballots, so unless one of the electors claims responsibility, it is unlikely that the identity of the faithless elector will ever be known. As a result of this incident, Minnesota Statutes were amended to provide for public balloting of the electors' votes and invalidation of a vote cast for someone other than the candidate pledged for by the elector.
• 2000 election: D.C. elector Barbara Lett-Simmons, pledged for Democrats Al Gore and Joe Lieberman, cast no electoral votes as a protest of Washington D.C.'s lack of statehood (what she described as the federal district's "colonial status.")
• 1988 election: West Virginia elector Margaret Leach, pledged for Democrats Michael Dukakis and Lloyd Bentsen, instead of casting her votes for the candidates in their positions on the national ticket, cast her presidential vote for Bentsen and her vice-presidential vote for Dukakis.
• 1976 election: Washington state elector Mike Padden, pledged for Republican Gerald Ford and Bob Dole, cast his presidential electoral vote for Ronald Reagan, who had challenged Ford for the Republican nomination. He cast his vice-presidential vote, as pledged, for Dole.
• 1972 election: Virginia elector Roger MacBride, pledged for Republicans Richard Nixon and Spiro Agnew, cast his electoral votes for Libertarian candidates John Hospers and Theodora Nathan. MacBride's vote for Nathan was the first electoral vote cast for a woman in U.S. history.
• 1968 election: North Carolina elector Lloyd W. Bailey, pledged for Republicans Richard Nixon and Spiro Agnew, cast his votes for American Independent Party candidates George Wallace and Curtis LeMay
• 1960 election: Oklahoma elector Henry D. Irwin, pledged for Republicans Richard Nixon and Henry Cabot Lodge, Jr., cast his presidential electoral vote for independent candidate Harry Flood Byrd (also supported by 15 "unpledged" Democratic delegates). Unlike other delegates who voted for Byrd for president, Irwin cast his vice-presidential electoral vote for Barry Goldwater (the other 15 Byrd electors cast their vice-presidential votes for J. Strom Thurmond.
• 1956 election: Alabama elector W. F. Turner, pledged for Democrats Adlai Stevenson and Estes Kefauver, cast his votes for Walter Burgwyn Jones and Herman Talmadge.
• 1948 election: Tennessee elector Preston Parks, pledged for Democrats Harry Truman and Alben Barkley, cast his votes for States' Rights Democratic Party candidates Strom Thurmond and Fielding Wright.