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

the system would appear to support the notion of independent-minded statesmen coming together to select the president and vice president. For instance, there would be no need to hold separate meetings throughout the states and there would be no need to secure pledges from electors if they were not originally intended to have independent voices. This early conception of the office of elector led Bennett to note the inconsistency in the term faithless electors, often used today. He wrote, “The irony is that it is only they [faithless electors] who are faithful to at least a part of the original conception of how the electors were to decide on the presidency of the United States” (Bennett 2006, 45).

It is clear that presidential electors were to be drawn from the highest quarters of society and were supposed to be independent of the federal government. Although some argued that governors or state legislatures should choose the president, the convention ultimately determined that the method of elector selection should be left to the states. To be sure, a number of prominent political leaders have served as electors over time. In recent elections, a number of governors or former governors (William Janklow, Ted Strickland, Mike Rounds, Winfield Dunn, and David Paterson) and statewide officeholders (Mary Landrieu, Eliot Spitzer, Dennis Daugaard, and Lee Fisher) have served in the position. It is of interest that two years after his service, Janklow was elected to Congress but resigned before his term expired, following his conviction of second-degree manslaughter in a traffic incident. Spitzer went on to become governor of New York shortly after his service but also resigned from office early in response to a sex scandal. Just as not all electors are scoundrels, certainly, neither are they all statesmen. For instance, few citizens knew that they were voting for Hall of Fame football star Franco Harris or the Amazing Race 4 winner Chip Arndt to cast their ballots for president and vice president of the United States in 2008. Of course, even fewer knew they were voting for the likes of Ned Helms, A.G. “Bobby” Fouche, Patricia Marcus, or Lesley Ahmed (all were electors in 2008). Thus, electors have been infamous, famous, and relatively anonymous.

Conventional wisdom indicates that most electors are chosen as a reward for their party activities. These activities can take the form of