You’re probably here because you just realized that when you vote for President, you aren't actually voting for the person on the ballot. Kinda wild, right? You’re actually voting for a slate of "electors." These are real people—party loyalists, activists, sometimes local politicians—who are supposed to go to their state capital and cast a formal vote for the candidate who won the popular vote in their state. But sometimes, they just... don't.
So, how many faithless electors have there been in the history of the United States?
The short answer is 165. That’s the number generally accepted by the FairVote non-profit and the National Archives. Out of over 23,000 electoral votes cast across dozens of elections, 165 times an elector decided to do their own thing. It sounds like a lot, but in the grand scheme of American history, it’s a drop in the bucket. However, those drops have caused some massive ripples, especially lately.
Why Do They Even Exist?
The Founding Fathers weren't exactly huge fans of direct democracy. Alexander Hamilton, writing in Federalist No. 68, argued that the Electoral College would ensure the office of the Presidency never falls to any man who is not in an eminent degree endowed with the requisite qualifications. Basically, they wanted a "deliberative body" of wise people who could act as a safety valve if the public chose someone truly dangerous or if a candidate died between the election and the meeting of electors.
Most people assume it’s a rubber-stamp process. For the most part, it is. But the "faithless" part happens when an elector goes rogue.
The Breakdown of the 165 Faithless Votes
If you look at the raw data, these 165 instances aren't all the same. They fall into three main buckets, and honestly, some are much more dramatic than others.
First, you have the dead candidate problem. This accounts for the vast majority of faithless votes—63 of them, to be exact. In 1872, Horace Greeley died after the general election but before the electors met. Since you can’t really inaugurate a ghost, 63 of his 66 electors scrambled. Most voted for other Democrats, like Thomas Hendricks or B. Gratz Brown. Technically, they were "faithless" because they didn't vote for Greeley, but they didn't really have a choice.
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Second, there are accidental votes. This happened in 2004 in Minnesota. An anonymous elector cast a vote for "John Edwards" for both President and Vice President. Most historians assume it was a total screw-up—the elector meant to vote for John Kerry for President. Because the ballots were secret, no one knows who did it. One person's mistake became a permanent part of the historical record.
Then there’s the third bucket: The protesters. These are the ones people actually care about. These are the electors who are fully aware of what they’re doing and choose to vote for someone else to make a political statement.
The 2016 Chaos: A Record-Breaking Year
If you want to understand how many faithless electors have there been in a single modern cycle, look no further than 2016. It was a mess.
Seven electors successfully cast faithless votes that year. That is the highest number in a single election where the candidate was actually alive.
- In Washington state, three Democratic electors voted for Colin Powell and one voted for Faith Spotted Eagle.
- In Hawaii, a Bernie Sanders supporter voted for Bernie instead of Hillary Clinton.
- In Texas, two Republican electors ditched Donald Trump. One voted for John Kasich, and the other voted for Ron Paul.
There were actually more attempts that failed. In Maine, Minnesota, and Colorado, electors tried to vote for other people but were blocked by state laws. If those had gone through, we would have seen ten faithless electors in a single night. This surge was mostly driven by a movement called the "Hamilton Electors," who tried to convince Republican electors to switch their votes to a moderate Republican to keep Trump out of the White House. It didn't work, obviously, but it changed the conversation about the Electoral College forever.
Can They Actually Be Punished?
For a long time, the answer was a giant "maybe."
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States started passing laws to prevent this, but no one knew if those laws were actually constitutional. Could a state really force a person to vote a certain way? That question went all the way to the Supreme Court in 2020 in a case called Chiafalo v. Washington.
The Court ruled unanimously: Yes, states can punish faithless electors. Justice Elena Kagan wrote the opinion. She basically said that the Constitution gives states the power to appoint electors, and that power includes the right to tell them how to vote. If an elector breaks their pledge, the state can fine them or even replace them on the spot. This was a huge blow to the idea of the "independent elector." Today, 33 states and the District of Columbia have some form of law on the books regarding faithless electors. Some just issue a fine (like the $1,000 fine Washington used in 2016), while others completely void the vote and swap the person out for someone who will follow the rules.
Does It Ever Change the Result?
Short answer: No.
Not yet, anyway. We have never had an election where faithless electors flipped the winner. The closest we ever came was 1836.
In that election, Richard Mentor Johnson was the Vice Presidential candidate running with Martin Van Buren. All 23 electors from Virginia decided they didn't like Johnson (mostly because of his personal life and his relationship with Julia Chinn, an enslaved woman). They refused to vote for him. This meant Johnson didn't get the majority he needed in the Electoral College.
What happens then? The Contingent Election.
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The decision went to the Senate. In a weird twist of fate, the Senate ended up electing Johnson anyway. So the "rebellion" was basically a waste of time, though it remains the only time faithless electors forced the Senate to decide a Vice President.
The Modern Stakes
We live in an era of razor-thin margins. Think back to the 2000 election. George W. Bush won with 271 electoral votes. You only need 270 to win. If just two electors had decided to jump ship, the whole thing would have been thrown into the House of Representatives.
In 2000, there was actually one faithless elector: Barbara Lett-Simmons from D.C. She left her ballot blank to protest D.C.’s lack of congressional representation. Since Al Gore had already lost, her protest didn't change the outcome, but it showed how easily a single person can mess with the math.
Spotting the Patterns
- Political leanings don't matter: Faithless electors have come from both major parties.
- It’s usually a "losing" side thing: Most faithless electors are on the side that already lost the general election. They feel they have nothing to lose by protesting.
- State laws are winning: Since the 2020 SCOTUS ruling, the "faithless" phenomenon is likely to decrease. States are getting much better at "binding" their electors with immediate replacement triggers.
What You Should Do Now
Knowing how many faithless electors have there been isn't just trivia; it’s about understanding the fragility of the system. If you live in one of the 17 states that doesn't have a law binding electors, your vote technically relies on the personal honor of the people chosen by the party.
If you're concerned about this, you can check your own state's status via the National Conference of State Legislatures. Most advocacy now focuses on either the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact (which would bypass the Electoral College without an amendment) or strengthening state-level binding laws.
The most practical thing you can do is stay informed about who your state's electors actually are. They are often listed on the Secretary of State's website leading up to the December meeting. In a world where 165 people have already broken the mold, it pays to know who is holding the pen.
Practical Next Steps:
- Identify your state’s laws: Look up if your state is one of the 33 that binds electors. If not, write to your state representatives about the Chiafalo v. Washington precedent.
- Verify the timeline: Remember that the "General Election" in November is just the first step. The electors meet in mid-December, and the votes are counted in Congress on January 6th. This "gap" is where faithless elector activity always occurs.
- Watch the fringes: Historically, faithless electors emerge during times of high polarization. If an election is decided by fewer than five electoral votes, the pressure on individual electors becomes an immense national security concern.