Also known as: presidential electors · elector · electors
Written by attorneys · grounded in primary & secondary sources — see below
A person appointed by a state in a number equal to its senators and representatives to cast votes for President and Vice President.
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Phuong Pham serves as a presidential elector after the state legislature directs appointment of individuals meeting constitutional criteria. She travels to the state capital and casts ballots for the candidates receiving the most popular votes in her state. The certified list of votes is transmitted to the President of the Senate for counting.
Priscilla Parks, selected as a presidential elector, receives a request to contribute funds to a political committee supporting a candidate. Campaign finance rules cap her individual expenditures at five hundred dollars for activities tied to the election of presidential electors. She complies by limiting her support to the statutory threshold.
Portia Price, age seventeen, seeks appointment as a presidential elector in her state. State law requires electors to meet the qualifications of voters for the most numerous branch of the legislature, which sets a minimum age of eighteen. Her application is rejected on that basis.
Paige Porter, a presidential elector, submits her ballot after the state canvassing board certifies the popular vote. Litigation challenges the certification process used to determine which slate of electors is valid. The dispute reaches the Supreme Court for resolution of the counting procedures.
Penelope Price, appointed as a presidential elector, faces a lawsuit claiming the state legislature's method of selection violates equal protection. The court examines whether the appointment process presents a justiciable controversy under the Constitution. The challenge proceeds to determine the validity of her role.
Patricia Patel serves as a presidential elector from a state whose number of electors is determined by total population counts. A challenge arises over whether the apportionment formula properly reflects the state's entitlement under the constitutional allocation. The court reviews the population basis for the state's elector total.
No senator, representative, or person holding an office of trust or profit under the United States may be appointed an elector.
Supporting sources
Each state appoints a number of electors equal to the whole number of senators and representatives to which the state is entitled in Congress.
Supporting sources
The House of Representatives chooses the President immediately by ballot from the five highest candidates on the list, with each state casting one vote.
Supporting sources
…§ 2, cl. 3; in the Migration and Importation provision, Art. I, § 9, cl. 1; in the Emolument Clause, Art. I, § 9, cl. 8; in the Electors provisions, Art. II, § 1, cl. 2, and the superseded cl. 3; in the provision outlining qualifications for the office of President, Art. II, § 1, cl. 5; in the Extradition provisions, Art.…