| Chapter 1: | A Risk to the Republic? |
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for faithless electors. Surprisingly large numbers of presidential electors reported that they considered casting faithless votes in both 2004 and 2008, revealing a pernicious risk to the presidential selection process and ultimately, to the republic itself. Research on presidential electors speaks directly to the issues of representation and legitimacy in the American presidential selection process. Bennett (2006, 3) astutely warned that “those intimately involved in presidential election campaigns must keep their eyes on the formalities.” This study sheds light on one of those so-called formalities—the office of presidential elector.
Plan of the Book
To recapitulate, scholars know very little about presidential electors. In fact, I have yet to find any systematic examination of those serving in this vital role in the political process. Apart from several stories discussing the service of specific electors, few details are extant on the subject. That so little information is available on the actors for whom Americans have cast their ballots over the past two hundred years is astonishing. The task set forth here is to provide a clear portrait of these actors over the past three election cycles. In addition, I examine several byproducts of this initial research, presenting a more expansive analysis of the phenomenon of presidential elector lobbying and investigating what I refer to as wavering electors, those who consider casting ballots for someone other than the candidates they had pledged to support.
Chapter 2 sets out to build a theory of presidential elector behavior. To do this, I provide some background on the Electoral College in general and on presidential electors specifically. Particular attention is given to the evolution of presidential electors over time, the varying methods of presidential elector selection at the state level, an examination of the laws relating to faithless electors, the incidence of lobbying campaigns in the Electoral College over time, and the occurrence of faithless electors in American history. I then turn to a consideration of electors’ motivations—more specifically, the motivations of past faithless electors—in order to help explain lobbying efforts, wavering electors, and faithlessness.