| Chapter 1: | A Risk to the Republic? |
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disenfranchises thousands of voters. To say that faithless votes today are a necessary precaution against the tyranny of the majority would be overreaching. Given the evolution of the office of presidential elector, faithless voting is by no means considered an integral part of the elector’s duties today. Rather, faithless electoral voting is a preventable offense and produces an increased cost in the presidential selection process for voters. Many individuals’ efficacy in the political process is marginal at best. The prospect of mischief within the Electoral College only exacerbates a general lack of faith in the electoral process—and it does so unnecessarily. Thus, the belief among electors that they are indeed free agents is something that party officials have gone to great lengths to counteract. Party professionals have indeed discouraged faithless votes over time, and when electors defect, they attract great notice and renewed debate about the office.
No presidential election has yet been decided by a faithless elector. Nonetheless, faithless electors have appeared in a majority of the past sixteen elections. As the incidence of faithless voting increases, important issues relating to representation arise. When electors fail to follow the popular mandate, they effectively negate thousands of votes. In short, faithless electors may create more havoc than butterfly ballots, outdated ballot machines, or armies of lawyers presenting legal challenges.
The Study
This study questions who presidential electors are and how political parties seek to minimize the prospect of faithless electoral voting. Parties have done a remarkable job, for 99 percent of all electors have remained faithful to their parties’ tickets. The accepted wisdom is that electors are rewarded for long-time service to the party with a plum spot in the Electoral College. This would explain why electors have been so loyal. Studying these political elites, however, reveals a much more complicated picture.
The entire presidential selection process rests upon each elector’s commitment to his or her party’s candidates. This study is based on surveys mailed to members of the Electoral Colleges from 2000, 2004,