# Electors **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [November 10, 2002, 12:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/electors/136082 "2002-11-10T00:36:01Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![sleeping](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/839c29/32.png) [@sleeping](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sleeping)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2002, 12:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/electors/136082/1 "2002-11-10T00:36:01Z")
During an American History class, my teacher raised the question of how someone gets to be an elector? Are they appointed by government officials, chosen by political parties, or does someone just knock on their doors Sunday morning to announce, “You’ve just won a seat as an elector!”? Cecil, please enlighten us once again. ---
**Author:** ![Frostillicus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Frostillicus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frostillicus)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2002, 12:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/electors/136082/2 "2002-11-10T00:44:05Z")
I assume you mean electors that are part of the electoral college for choosing a President. They are loyal members of the Democratic or Republican party. After all, the electors are technically free to cast their vote for whoever they want, as Mississippi’s electors did in 1960 when JFK won the state, only to see the electoral votes go to Byrd. So the parties select individuals that they know will vote for their candidate. ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2002, 3:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/electors/136082/3 "2002-11-10T03:11:09Z")
This issue came up on several threads before, during and after the 2000 presidential campaign. Plug “electoral college” or “electors” into the search engine, set it for General Questions, and over a year ago, and you’ll get lots of chatter to wade through. ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2002, 3:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/electors/136082/4 "2002-11-10T03:17:50Z")
This issue came up on several threads before, during and after the 2000 presidential campaign. Plug “electoral college” or “electors” into the search engine, set it for General Questions, and over a year ago, and you’ll get lots of chatter to wade through. ---
**Author:** ![Freddy\_the\_Pig](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/a587f6/32.png) [@Freddy\_the\_Pig](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freddy_the_Pig)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2002, 5:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/electors/136082/5 "2002-11-10T05:24:32Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Frostillicus \* > **After all, the electors are technically free to cast their vote for whoever they want, as Mississippi’s electors did in 1960 when JFK won the state, only to see the electoral votes go to Byrd** JFK didn’t carry Mississippi in 1960. An “unpledged” slate of electors, whom everyone understood would support a segregationist candidate (which turned out to be Byrd), defeated both the regular Democratic (JFK) slate and the Republican (Nixon) slate. ---
**Author:** ![Frostillicus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Frostillicus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frostillicus)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2002, 3:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/electors/136082/6 "2002-11-10T15:59:38Z")
Thanks for the clarification, jklann. I had assumed that Kennedy won the state, since Mississippi had no Republican party to speak of back then, but I guess JFK’s position on civil rights gave Democrats in Mississippi no reason to vote for him. ---
**Author:** ![aahala](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a88e4f/32.png) [@aahala](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aahala)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2002, 4:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/electors/136082/7 "2002-11-10T16:26:10Z")
In roughly half of the last 50 Presidential Elections, one or more oddball electors have voted for President or VP he/she wasn’t supposed to. I believe in a couple of states the electors are bound by law to vote as the voters intended, but the penalty for violation isn’t all that clear. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2002, 5:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/electors/136082/8 "2002-11-10T17:39:22Z")
No one said this explicitly earlier, but technically you do not vote for the candidate for president: you vote for the slate of electors pledged to that candidate. ---
**Author:** ![aahala](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a88e4f/32.png) [@aahala](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aahala)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2002, 6:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/electors/136082/9 "2002-11-10T18:21:44Z")
I tried to edit or delete my last post and couldn’t. I meant the last 50 years, half showed an odd elector voting not as intended - 56, 60, 72, 76, 88, 2000. There are quite a few elections in US history, where the final vote in the electoral college was not exactly as intended. ---
**Author:** ![yabob](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yabob/32/2821_2.png) [@yabob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yabob)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2002, 6:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/electors/136082/10 "2002-11-10T18:40:05Z")
Indeed. One of the more interesting was Horace Greeley, who managed to die between the time of the election and the meeting of the electoral college. His electoral votes wound up scattered among the other candidates. Then, there was 1876 (Hayes / Tilden). People who think the situation with the 2000 election was unprecedented are encouraged to look this up. ---
**Author:** ![Beruang](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/77aa72/32.png) [@Beruang](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beruang)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2002, 9:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/electors/136082/11 "2002-11-10T21:56:53Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by aahala \* > \*\*I tried to edit or delete my last post and couldn’t. I meant the last 50 years, half showed an odd elector voting not as intended - 56, 60, 72, 76, 88, 2000. > > There are quite a few elections in US history, where the final vote in the electoral college was not exactly as intended. \*\* There was a faithless elector in 2000? I admit I was paying attention, but I never heard that. Who? – Beruang ---
**Author:** ![DesertDog](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/desertdog/32/11503_2.png) [@DesertDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DesertDog)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2002, 10:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/electors/136082/12 "2002-11-10T22:58:23Z")
I was active in the Libertarian party in California where, at least fourteen years ago, the ballot had for the office of President of the U.S. **Electors for (candidate’s name)** at the top, then in very small type, the names of all fifty-odd persons. The parties had to submit a slate of Electors a month or two before the election and at one of the Central Committee meetings, folks chipped in a $50 donation for the ‘honor’ of being on the slate. I framed that page of my sample ballot, but lost it a couple moves back. Incidentally, the first woman to receive a Vice-presidential electoral vote was Libertarian Toni Nathan in 1972. Republican Roger MacBride in Virginia was an elector, but between the election in November and the Electoral College’s meeting in December, Richard Nixon imposed wage and price controls. MacBride bolted and voted for John Hospers and Nathan as a protest, and, in fact, was the Libertarian candidate for President in 1976. DD ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2002, 4:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/electors/136082/13 "2002-11-11T04:50:00Z")
Here’s a link to the complete membership of the [2000 Electoral College](http://www.archives.gov/federal_register/electoral_college/members_2000.html). Doesn’t say anything about how the parties pick the electoral candidates. ---
**Author:** ![Loopus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loopus/32/15343_2.png) [@Loopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loopus)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2002, 6:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/electors/136082/14 "2002-11-11T06:07:29Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Beruang \* > **There was a faithless elector in 2000? I admit I was paying attention, but I never heard that. Who?** One of the electors from DC (which was carried by Gore) abstained as a form of protest because of DC’s lack of representation in Congress. [Link](http://www.gwu.edu/~action/2004/states/dc.htm)