Reading Room Document

Presidential Electors and the Nominee of the National Convention

This memo considered whether a presidential elector who announced an intention to vote for a candidate other than the one nominated by the elector’s party could be compelled to vote for the party’s nominee. It concludes that state statutes likely may not compel electors to vote for the nominee of his party but that state parties may cancel the elector’s nomination and nominate someone else, or could seek an injunction against him.

August 18, 1948