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Wednesday, May 13, 2020
The Most Famous Presidential Elector
In honor of today's Supreme Court cases on faithless electors, here is a trivia question. Who is the most accomplished person to serve as a presidential elector? I think that I know the answer, but admittedly reasonable people may disagree. Take your best shot, and I'll give an answer tomorrow.
UPDATE: Bill Clinton and James Wilson are both excellent choices, as sharp-eyed readers pointed out.
Posted by Gerard Magliocca on May 13, 2020 at 09:23 PM | Permalink
Comments
William Plumer--who cost Monroe a unanimous electoral college vote.
Posted by: seth tillman | May 15, 2020 11:43:08 AM
Other than a founding father and a 2-term U.S. president, it's going to be hard to find anyone more accomplished (which is the litmus test here) because electors are typically political types, and those are more or less the two pinnacles of political achievement. There's probably not much demand for electors who are accomplished in other fields, like Nobel Prize winners.
Posted by: hardreaders | May 14, 2020 12:22:42 PM
In the 1964 election, the New York papers had fun with the fact that if you voted for LBJ, you actually were casting a vote for a man named Goldwater. Morris Goldwater was the law partner of Bronx boss Charlie Buckley and one of the Democratic electors that year.
Posted by: PaulB | May 14, 2020 10:05:11 AM
James Wilson (1789) and Bill Clinton (2016) come to mind....
Posted by: Derek Muller | May 13, 2020 10:58:39 PM
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