Word: electorate
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...these electors, who are they? A: States decide how they're chosen, but usually they are loyalists chosen by their parties. Five hundred and thirty-eight electoral votes are distributed among the states - one for each member of the House and Senate. (The District of Columbia gets three.) An elector is chosen for every electoral vote available to a state. Electors can't hold federal office. Some celebrities have been electors, like Coretta Scott King, Martin Luther King Jr.'s widow. This year they include the Florida attorney general, a retired school administrator in Ohio and a computer specialist...
...scenario assumes electors vote as they have pledged. But some electors have gone their own way. In 1976 a Republican Washington State elector cast a ballot for Ronald Reagan even though Gerald Ford was the G.O.P. nominee. Only a handful of electors have strayed. But in a tie race, it would take only one elector voting for Ralph Nader or his Aunt Edna to throw the whole thing off. To be sure, since electors are chosen by their parties, they're usually loyal. But only a few states require a pledge from electors. And that rule has never been tested...