faithless elector

noun

plural faithless electors

: an elector who votes in the electoral college for a candidate other than the one who won the popular vote in the elector's state

Electors are pledged, but not beholden to voting for their state's winning candidate, though some states penalize faithless electors who go rogue and vote for another candidate.

—Sara Dorn

Thirty-two states have some sort of faithless elector law, but only 15 of those remove, penalize or simply cancel the votes of the errant electors.

—Nina Totenberg

Examples of faithless elector in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

In 2020, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that states can enforce laws requiring electors to follow the popular vote, which effectively limits the occurrence of faithless electors. —Brandi D. Addison, Austin American-Statesman, 17 Dec. 2024

At this point, the faithless elector scenario appears to be, thankfully, a theoretic relic of the past. —Ryan Smith, Newsweek, 16 Dec. 2024

Assuming there are no faithless electors, that will give Trump a healthy 312-226 electoral-vote margin when the Electoral College convenes on Dec. 17. —Nathaniel Rakich, ABC News, 26 Nov. 2024

And in 1837, Martin Van Buren won a majority of electoral votes, but Virginia's 23 electors refused to support his vice presidential candidate, Richard Johnson, and became faithless electors. —Mary Cunningham, CBS News, 4 Nov. 2024

Thirty-five states and D.C. have laws against faithless electors. —Solcyré Burga, TIME, 28 Oct. 2024

Word History

First Known Use

1928, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for faithless elector

• photodetector
• bisector
• collector
• connector
• corrector
• defector
• deflector
• detector
• director
• dissector
• effector
• ejector