Presidential Electors and the Electoral College: An Examination ...

apparently unnoticed phenomenon. More important, I analyze whether these lobbying campaigns had an attentive audience among America’s elite electoral body.

Why Is the Republic at Risk?

In both 2000 and 2004, the presidential election came down to one state’s electoral vote totals—Florida in 2000 and Ohio in 2004. Such close contests have brought a great deal of attention to the Electoral College, and the institution has been criticized from a variety of fronts. Scholars have noted that the Electoral College overemphasizes the electoral importance of some states and thus leads candidates to neglect many states in their pursuit of the White House (see, for example, Edwards 2004; Shaw 2006). Additional arguments suggest that the federal nature of the institution is antiquated and should be replaced by a simple nationwide popular vote (see, for example, Edwards 2004). Another concern is the potential inherent to the system for renegade electors to fail to vote for their pledged candidates and instead assert their own independence (Bennett 2006). It is this criticism to which I devote particular attention. Research on these critical players in the political process is long overdue. Moreover, the data I have collected suggest that a very real potential for chaos exists in the Electoral College in the form of a sizable group of independent-minded electors.

Busch has observed that “while the form of the Electoral College has remained largely unaltered constitutionally, its operation has changed dramatically” (2001, 27). The office of presidential elector provides perhaps the clearest example of this fact. It is evident that the original conception of the office was a position occupied by preeminent citizens charged with using their judgment to select the president and vice president of the United States. However, this conception quickly gave way to partisan politics in which electors were to carry out the will of their respective political parties. Casting a faithless vote would have sealed one’s excommunication from the party. Thus, for over two hundred years, those occupying the position of presidential elector have been