Editing Faithless elector (section)

===2000 and 2004===
'''1''' – [[2000 United States presidential election|2000 election]]: Washington, D.C. Elector [[Barbara Lett-Simmons]], pledged for Democrats [[Al Gore]] and [[Joe Lieberman]], cast no electoral votes as a protest of [[District of Columbia voting rights|Washington D.C.'s lack of voting congressional representation]].<ref name=dcelector>{{cite news |last=Stout |first=David |date= December 19, 2000 |title= The 43rd President: The Electoral College; The Electors Vote, and the Surprises Are Few |newspaper= The New York Times |url= https://www.nytimes.com/2000/12/19/us/43rd-president-electoral-college-electors-vote-surprises-are-few.html |access-date= November 30, 2009 |quote= But it was Mr. Gore who suffered an erosion today. Lett-Simmons, a Gore elector from the District of Columbia, left her ballot blank to protest what she called the capital's "colonial status" – its lack of a voting representative in Congress.}}</ref> Lett-Simmons's electoral college abstention, the first since [[1864 United States presidential election|1864]], was intended to protest what Lett-Simmons referred to as the federal district's "colonial status".<ref name=dcelector/> Lett-Simmons described her blank ballot as an act of [[civil disobedience]], not an act of a faithless elector; Lett-Simmons supported Gore and Lieberman and would have voted for Gore and Lieberman if she had thought they had a chance to win.<ref name=dcelector/>

'''1''' – [[2004 United States presidential election|2004 election]]: An anonymous Minnesota elector, pledged for Democrats [[John Kerry]] and [[John Edwards]], cast their presidential vote for
<!-- NOTE TO EDITORS: The following name SHOULD BE "John Ewards." The point is that the elector spelled his name wrong. -->
{{sic|"John Ew|ards"}},<ref>{{cite web|date=December 17, 2004 |title=Vote for Edwards instead of Kerry shocks Minnesota electors |website=[[Star Tribune]] |url=http://www.startribune.com/stories/587/5134791.html |url-status=bot: unknown |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20041217034158/http://www.startribune.com/stories/587/5134791.html |archive-date=December 17, 2004 |df=mdy }}</ref> rather than Kerry, presumably by accident.<ref>{{cite web |title=MPR: Minnesota elector gives Edwards a vote; Kerry gets other nine |publisher=News.minnesota.publicradio.org |url=http://news.minnesota.publicradio.org/features/2004/12/13_ap_electors/ |access-date=May 5, 2009}}</ref> All of Minnesota's electors cast their vice presidential ballots for [[John Edwards]], including the elector who cast the anomalous presidential vote. Minnesota's electors cast secret ballots, so the identity of the faithless elector is not 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 to whom the elector is pledged.<ref name="2004mistake">{{cite web|url=https://www.ncsl.org/research/elections-and-campaigns/the-electoral-college.aspx|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201122050255/https://www.ncsl.org/research/elections-and-campaigns/the-electoral-college.aspx|archive-date=22 November 2020|url-status=live|title=The Electoral College|date=11 November 2020|access-date=23 November 2020|website=[[National Conference of State Legislatures]]}}</ref><ref name="auto"/>