What happens if a candidate dies on election day?

Nobody gave a crap about her, because it didn’t make any difference. Gore lost with 266 votes, and he would have lost with 267 as well.

And the amusing thing is that, after Washington left office, that didn’t happen. I remember reading about a letter this New England voter wrote to the newspaper, complaining about a faithless elector, saying [paraphrased] “I picked Mr. Samuals [not his real name] to Chuse, not to Think.” In other words, even in the very first election (or possibly the second or third, certainly very early on), there was an expectation that electors would follow the will of their state, not their own counsel.

Do you have a cite for that? I don’t disbelieve you…I’d just like to read more about it.

The names of the electors used to be listed on the ballot as they were directly selected. This has pretty much evolved into selecting and voting for an entire slate of electors chosen by the candidate’s party.

My source says that only a few states still list the names of the electors under the candidate’s name. My Google Fu must be weak, as I was unable to identify which states those were.

I’m not sure which bit of my post you want a cite for, but Wikipedia has a good article on the Electoral College: Link

Another interesting link is to the US National Archives, here, where you can view the actual ballot papers used by the electors in 2004.

http://archives.cnn.com/2000/ALLPOLITICS/stories/11/07/senate.missouri/ It has happened but not for president. It was Ashcroft losing.