Editing Faithless elector (section)

{{Short description|Elector who does not vote for the candidate for whom they had pledged to vote}}
{{distinguish|fake electors}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=November 2016}}
[[File:Faithless elector laws enforcement.svg|thumb|right|350 px|alt=Map of faithless elector laws in the US|
'''Faithless elector laws by state'''<ref name=laws/>
{{legend|#40ac3f|Vote voided with penalty}}
{{legend|#b3e08b|Vote voided}}
{{legend|#ff2625|Vote counted with penalty}}
{{legend|#ffacac|Vote counted}}
{{legend|#d1d1d1|No law}}
]]
In the [[United States Electoral College]], a '''faithless elector''' is an elector who does not vote for the candidates for [[U.S. President]] and [[U.S. Vice President]] for whom the elector had pledged to vote, and instead votes for another person for one or both offices or abstains from voting. As part of [[United States presidential election]]s, each [[U.S. state|state]] legislates the method by which its electors are to be selected. Many states require electors to have pledged to vote for the candidates of their [[political party|party]] if appointed. The consequences of an elector voting in a way inconsistent with their pledge vary from state to state.

Electors are typically chosen and [[Nomination|nominated]] by a political party or the party's [[presidential nominee]], and are usually party members with a reputation for high loyalty to the party and its chosen candidate. Thus, a faithless elector runs the risk of party [[Censure in the United States|censure]] and political retaliation from their party, as well as potential legal penalties in some states. Candidates for electors are nominated by state political parties in the months prior to [[Election Day (United States)|Election Day]]. In some states, such as [[Indiana]], the electors are nominated in [[Partisan primary|primaries]], the same way other candidates are nominated.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.archives.gov/federal-register/electoral-college/electors.html#selection |title=About the Electors|date=August 27, 2019|publisher=National Archives and Records Administration}}</ref> In other states, such as [[Oklahoma]], [[Virginia]], and [[North Carolina]], electors are nominated in party conventions. In [[Pennsylvania]], the campaign committee of each candidate names their candidates for elector in an attempt to discourage faithless electors. In some states, high-ranking or well-known state officials up to and including [[Governor (United States)|governors]] often serve as electors whenever possible (the Constitution prohibits federal officials from acting as electors, but does not restrict state officials from doing so). The parties have generally been successful in keeping their electors faithful, leaving out the rare cases in which a candidate died before the elector was able to cast a vote.{{citation needed|date=March 2023}}

As of the [[2020 United States presidential election|2020 election]], there have been a total of 165<ref name="FairVote">{{cite web |title=Faithless Electors |url=https://www.fairvote.org/faithless_electors |website=Fair Vote |access-date=14 December 2020 |archive-date=February 9, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210209184600/https://www.fairvote.org/faithless_electors |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref name="Newsweek20201214">{{cite web |title=Electoral College Cements Joe Biden's Victory With Zero Faithless Electors |url=https://www.newsweek.com/electoral-college-cements-joe-bidens-victory-zero-faithless-electors-1554660 |website=Newsweek | date=14 December 2020 |access-date=14 December 2020}}</ref> instances of faithlessness, 90 of which were for president, while 75 were for vice president. They have never swung an election,<ref name="Newsweek20201214"/> and nearly all have voted for [[Third party (U.S. politics)|third party]] candidates or non-candidates, as opposed to switching their support to a major opposing candidate. There were 63 faithless electors in [[1872 United States presidential election|1872]] when [[Horace Greeley]] died between Election Day and when the Electoral College convened, but [[Ulysses S. Grant]] had already clinched enough to win reelection. During the [[1836 United States presidential election|1836 election]], Virginia's entire 23-man electoral delegation faithlessly abstained{{why|date=October 2024}}<ref name="SabatoErnst2014"/> from voting for victorious [[Democratic Party (United States)|Democratic]] vice presidential nominee [[Richard Mentor Johnson#Election of 1836|Richard M. Johnson]].<ref name="FairVote"/> The loss of Virginia's support caused Johnson to fall one electoral vote short of a majority, causing the vice-presidential race to be thrown into the [[United States Senate|U.S. Senate]] under a [[contingent election]]. The presidential election itself was not in dispute because Virginia's electors voted for Democratic presidential nominee [[Martin Van Buren]] as pledged. The Senate elected Johnson as vice president anyway after a [[party-line vote]]. Uniquely, [[Richard Nixon]] always had a faithless elector in one of his state slates during his three runs for president. Oklahoma in 1960, North Carolina in 1968 and Virginia in 1972 all voted for Nixon but one elector cast a vote for another person.

The [[United States Constitution]] does not specify a notion of ''pledging''; no federal law or constitutional statute binds an elector's vote to anything. All pledging laws originate at the state level;<ref>{{cite book | title=Promises Of The Constitution: Yesterday Today Tomorrow | author=Openshaw, Pamela Romney | publisher=BookBaby | year=2014 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BEdXDQAAQBAJ | page=10.3 | isbn=9781483529806 }}{{Dead link|date=December 2023 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref><ref>{{cite book | title=The Indispensable Electoral College: How the Founders' Plan Saves Our Country from Mob Rule | publisher=Gateway Editions | year=2017 | author=Ross, Tara | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=t0IkDwAAQBAJ | page=26| isbn=9781621577072 }}</ref> the [[Supreme Court of the United States|U.S. Supreme Court]] upheld these state laws in its 1952 ruling ''[[Ray v. Blair]]''. In 2020, the Supreme Court also ruled in ''[[Chiafalo v. Washington]]'' that states are free to enforce laws that bind electors to voting for the winner of the popular vote in their state.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://apnews.com/a398c3e7c8d2c4a1b9ad498ed5f86ed7|title=Justices rule states can bind presidential electors' votes|work=Associated Press|date=July 6, 2020}}</ref>