"Faithless
Electors"
"Faithless Electors" are members of the Electoral
College who, for whatever reason, do not vote for their party's
designated candidate.
Since the founding of the Electoral
College, there have been 156 faithless Electors.
71 of these votes were changed because
the original candidate died before the day on which the Electoral
College cast their votes.
Three of the votes were not cast at all. These
three Electors chose to abstain from casting their Electoral vote for
any candidate.
The other 82 Electoral votes were
changed on the personal initiative of the Elector. Sometimes
Electors changed their votes in large groups, such as when 23
Virginia Electors acted together in 1836. Many times, these Electors
stood alone in their decision.
As of the 2000 election, no Elector has
changed the outcome of an election by voting against their party�s
designated candidate.
Despite these 156 faithless votes, and a Supreme Court ruling allowing states to
empower political parties to require formal pledges from
Presidential Electors (Ray v Blair, 343 US 214), 26 states still do
not require their members of the Electoral College to vote for their
party's designated candidate.
The 24 states that do have requirements
issue a variety of punishments for faithless Electors, including
fines and possible criminal charges.
The names, dates, and stories of these
156 votes are listed below:
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2000 - Barbara
Lett-Simmons (Democrat, District of
Columbia)
1988 - Margaret
Leach (Democrat, West Virginia)
1976 - Mike Padden (Republican, Washington)
1972 - Roger L. MacBride
(Republican, Virginia)
1968 - Dr. Lloyd W. Bailey (Republican, North
Carolina)
1960 - Henry D. Irwin (Republican, Oklahoma)
1956 - W.F. Turner (Democrat, Alabama)
1948 - Preston Parks (Democrat,
Tennessee)
1912 - Eight Republican Electors
1896 - Four Democratic Electors
1872 - Sixty-Three Democratic Electors
1836 - Twenty-Three Democratic Electors
(Virginia)
1832 - Thirty-Two Democratic Electors (PA, MD)
1828 - Seven Democratic Electors (Georgia)
1820 - William Plummer, Sr. (Democratic-Republican,
NH)
1812 - Three Federalist Electors 1808 - Six Democratic-Republican Electors 1796 - Samuel Miles (Federalist,
Pennsylvania)
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2000 - Barbara Lett-Simmons
(Democrat, District of Columbia)
In the most recent act of Elector
abstention, Barbara Lett-Simmons, a Democratic Elector from the
District of Columbia, did not cast her vote for Al Gore as expected.
Her abstention was meant to protest the
lack of Congressional representation for Washington,
DC.
Lett-Simmons was the first Elector to
abstain from voting since 1832.
Her abstention did
not affect the outcome of the election.
1988 - Margaret Leach (Democrat, West
Virginia)
Margaret Leach, a nurse from Huntington,
WV, was pledged to the Democratic Party. During the Electoral College
process, Leach learned that members of the Electoral College were not
required to vote for the candidates they were pledged to.
Upon learning
this, she decided to draw more attention to the situation by switching
her votes for President and Vice President.
She cast her
Presidential vote for Lloyd Bentsen, the Democratic Vice
Presidential candidate, and cast her Vice Presidential vote for
Michael Dukakis, the Democratic Presidential candidate.
Leach tried to
convince other Electors to join her, but hers remained the only
unexpected vote.
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1976 - Mike Padden (Republican,
Washington)
Mike Padden, a lawyer from Spokane, WA,
was pledged to vote for Gerald Ford, the Republican candidate for
President.
Padden instead voted
for Ronald Reagan, who
had run in the Republican primary
and lost, as President and Robert Dole as Vice President. Dole
was running as Gerald Ford's running mate.
1972 - Roger L. MacBride (Republican,
Virginia)
Roger L. MacBride was
pledged to the Republican party of Virginia. He was once a candidate
for governor of Vermont on the Republican ballot.
In the 1972 election, MacBride did not
cast his Electoral vote for Richard Nixon, the Republican Presidential
candidate, but for John Hospers, the Libertarian Presidential
candidate.
He also cast his Vice
Presidential vote for Toni Nathan, the Libertarian Vice Presidential
candidate, making Nathan the first woman to receive an Electoral
vote.
MacBride ran as the
Libertarian candidate for President in the next election but did not
receive any Electoral votes of his own.
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1968 - Dr. Lloyd W. Bailey
(Republican, North Carolina)
Dr. Lloyd W. Bailey was an Elector for
the Republican Party of North Carolina.
He did not vote for Richard Nixon, but for
George Wallace, the Presidential candidate for the American Independence
Party. Wallace received a total of 46 Electoral
votes.
Bailey claimed that Nixon had
done some things that displeased him (like appointing
Henry Kissinger and Daniel Moynihan) and so did not want to vote for him.
He also protested that he had never
signed a pledge promising to vote for any particular candidate.
Bailey also said that his vote for Wallace was justified because
Wallace was the winner in Bailey�s
district.
Bailey later
admitted at a Senate hearing that he would have voted for
Richard Nixon if his vote would have altered the outcome of the
election.
1960 - Henry D. Irwin (Republican,
Oklahoma)
Henry D. Irwin, a
Republican Elector from Oklahoma, was originally pledged to Richard
Nixon. Irwin later admitted in
an interview with CBS that he "could not stomach"
Nixon.
Irwin also believed that the founding fathers never
intended the "indigent, the nonproperty owners" to be included in
the Presidential vote.
He tried to convince the
Democratic and Republican Electors to reject both Kennedy
and Nixon as Presidential candidates. His choice replacement was a
combination of two conservative Senators: Harry F. Byrd of
Virginia and Barry Goldwater of Arizona.
He sent out telegrams
to the other Electors; one sent to the 218 Republican Electors is
copied below:
"I am Oklahoma
Republican elector. The Republican electors cannot deny the election
to Kennedy. Sufficient conservative Democratic electors available to
deny labor Socialist nominee. Would you consider Byrd President,
Goldwater Vice President, or wire any acceptable substitute. All
replies strict confidence."
Irwin received
several replies (about 40) from other Electors but he was the only
one to vote against his designated party. He cast his Electoral
votes for Byrd and Goldwater.
In the same election 14 unpledged
Electors (eight from Mississippi and six from Alabama) cast
their Presidential votes for Harry Byrd. These Electors were
selected by the state and not by a
party. All 14 also voted for Senator Strom Thurmond of South Carolina as Vice
President.
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1956 - W.F. Turner (Democrat,
Alabama)
W.F. Turner, a
Democratic Elector from Alabama, voted for Walter Burgwyn Jones instead
of the Democratic candidate Adlai Stevenson.
Jones was formerly a circuit court judge from Turner�s
hometown.
1948 - Preston Parks (Democrat,
Tennessee)
Preston Parks was a
member of Tennessee�s Democratic Party.
He was appointed as
one of their state Electors early in the election year. Before the
election, members of the Democratic Party split off and formed the
States Rights party.
Parks vowed before the
election to vote for Senator Strom Thurmond, the States Rights Party
candidate instead of Harry Truman. Another Elector also made the
same pledge but ended up voting for Truman.
Thurmond, who gathered less than
3% of the popular vote, received a total of 39 Electoral votes.
These votes came from Louisiana, Alabama, Mississippi, and South
Carolina.
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1912 - Eight Republican
Electors
In 1912, Republican Vice
Presidential candidate James S. Sherman died before the election. He
was President William Howard Taft's Vice President
and they were both running for re-election.
Eight Republican Electors had pledged their
votes to him but voted for Nicholas Murray Butler instead.
1896 - Four People's Party Electors
In 1896, two parties,
the Democratic Party and the People�s Party, ran William Jennings
Bryan as their Presidential candidate.
The two parties,
though they shared a Presidential candidate, nominated different
candidates for Vice President. The Democratic Party nominated Arthur
Sewall and the People�s Party nominated Thomas Watson.
The People�s Party
won 31 Electoral votes but four of those Electors voted with the
Democratic ticket, supporting Bryan as President and Sewall as Vice
President.
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1872 - Sixty-Three Democratic
Electors
The Democratic Party nominated Horace
Greeley for President in 1872.
However, Greeley died after the
November election but before the Electoral College had cast their
votes. 63 of the 66 Democratic Electors refused to give their votes
to a deceased candidate.
Seventeen of these 63 Electors abstained from voting.
The other 43 Electors split their votes among three other Democratic
candidates.
1836 - Twenty-Three Democratic
Electors (Virginia)
The Democratic Party
nominated Richard M. Johnson of Kentucky as their Vice Presidential
candidate.
The 23 Electors from Virginia refused
to support Johnson with their votes upon learning of the
allegation that he had lived with an African-American woman.
With these 23 votes
missing, there was no majority in the Electoral College and the
decision was deferred to the Senate.
The Senate voted
Johnson as the Vice President.
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1832 - Thirty-Two Electors
(PA, MD)
Two National Republican Party
Electors from the state of Maryland refused to vote for Presidential
candidate Henry Clay. They did not vote against Clay but simply
abstained from voting.
In the same year, all 30 Electors from Pennsylvania
refused to support the Democratic Vice Presidential candidate Martin
Van Buren. All 30 Electors cast their votes for William Wilkins.
Despite the loss of the 30 votes from Pennsylvania,
Martin Van Buren was elected as the Vice President. Andrew Jackson
was elected as the President, receiving over 75% of the Electoral
votes.
1828 - Seven Democratic Electors
(Georgia)
In this election,
seven out of the nine Electors from Georgia refused to vote for Vice
Presidential candidate John Calhoun.
All seven cast their Vice
Presidential votes for William Smith. Both Calhoun
and Smith were from South Carolina.
Andrew Jackson won his re-election, with John Calhoun
as his Vice President.
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1820 - William Plummer, Sr.
(Democratic-Republican, New Hampshire)
William Plummer, Sr.
was pledged to vote for Democratic-Republican candidate James
Monroe. Instead, he cast his vote for John Quincy Adams, also of the
Democratic-Republican Party.
Adams was not a
candidate in the 1820 election. Supposedly, Plummer did not feel
that the Electoral College should unanimously elect any President
other than George Washington.
Other than three Electors who did
not cast votes, Plummer�s vote for
Adams was the only vote not cast for Monroe.
1812 - Three Federalist
Electors
Three Electors of the Federalist Party refused to
cast their votes for Federalist Vice Presidential candidate
Jared Ingersoll.
All three voted instead for Elbridge Gerry, the Vice
Presidential candidate for the Democratic-Republican Party.
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1808 - Six Democratic-Republican
Electors
Six Electors from the
Democratic-Republican Party refused to support James Madison, their
party�s candidate for President.
Instead, all three voted for
George Clinton for President. Clinton was the
Democratic-Republican Party�s Vice Presidential candidate.
1796 - Samuel Miles (Federalist,
Pennsylvania)
Samuel Miles, an
Elector from Pennsylvania, was the first Elector to vote for a
candidate other than the one he was pledged to.
Miles did not vote for Federalist
candidate John Adams,
but for Thomas Jefferson, the Democratic-Republican candidate for President.
Jefferson won the Electoral College by only
three votes. Miles' vote would not have given the election to Adams,
but reduced the margin to just one vote.
The excerpt below is
taken from a letter published in the Gazette of the United
States, written by an angry voter in Pennsylvania:
"What, do I choose
Samuel Miles to determine for me whether John Adams or Thomas
Jefferson shall be President? No! I choose him to act, not to
think."
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