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Have faithless electors ever changed the outcome of a U.S. presidential election?
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Electoral College
A certificate from Alabama showing the signatures of the state's electors in 2000. The nine electors voted for George W. Bush and his running mate Dick Cheney.
Faithless electors have never changed the outcome of a U.S. presidential election.
While there have been more than 150 instances of "faithless" electorsâindividuals who cast a vote for a candidate other than the one to whom they were pledgedâsince the Electoral College system was established in 1789, none of these actions has ever altered the final result of an election.1
Electors are selected by political parties at the state level, and while they are often expected to reflect the will of the voters, they are not always legally bound to do so. In response to this, many states have implemented laws to penalize, remove, or cancel the votes of electors who attempt to vote against their party's chosen candidate.12