Faithless Electors: A Risk Worth Addressing Before 2028

Imagine a close presidential election where the national outcome hinges on a handful of electoral votes. In that environment, public attention and political pressure wouldn’t just fall on state officials or courts in the contested states, but also on the presidential electors themselves, the individuals tasked with casting votes that actually elect the president.

Presidential electors are expected to carry out the will of voters in their state. In many places, they even make formal pledges to do so. What’s less consistent is what happens if something goes wrong—if an elector attempts to cast a vote that doesn’t match the certified result, or faces pressure to do so.

At a time of heightened polarization and widespread election disinformation, even just a few “faithless electors” in key states could tilt the result and invite widespread electoral chaos.

Election Reformers Network is working alongside a broad, cross-partisan coalition of reform organizations to address this gap in our election governance infrastructure. Setting clear rules to govern presidential electors will enhance the transparency and predictability of a system that is at risk of becoming the next frontier in our ongoing partisan warfare.

Just this year, we’ve supported successful legislation in Oregon and have endorsed pending bills in Connecticut, Maryland, and Massachusetts. My testimony in favor of Connecticut’s legislation emphasizes that fixing the rules around faithless electors is a “simple, commonsense solution to protect the [people’s] vote.”

The goal is not to change outcomes. It’s to ensure that outcomes can’t be changed at the last minute.

David Weinberg, Policy Strategist at Protect Democracy who leads the coalition’s effort, put it simply: “When Americans cast their ballots for president, they deserve to know that their votes will be honored.”

Fortunately, the solution is remarkably straightforward.

“Faithless elector” laws create clear rules and procedures binding electors to vote in line with the state’s election results. If an elector attempts to vote contrary to the state’s results, that vote is simply not counted, the elector is replaced immediately, and the state’s electoral votes are recorded as voters intended.

This approach isn’t new or experimental. It draws on a model framework developed by the Uniform Law Commission and has been adopted by 26 states, red, blue, and purple alike. The U.S. Supreme Court has also affirmed that states have the authority to bind electors in this way, putting the legal foundation on solid ground.

And yet, the national picture remains uneven. While a growing number of states have adopted robust safeguards, others still rely on partial measures, or none at all. Among those with weak or no faithless elector guardrails are several critical presidential battlegrounds, including Georgia, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin.

This effort is especially important in today’s political environment. Election governance is under more strain than it has been in decades. Officials at every level face increased scrutiny and, in some cases, pressure to bend the rules to favor one side or the other. Ensuring that presidential electors are protected—and that they cannot be used as leverage in a contested election—is a natural extension of that broader effort.

There’s also a timing issue. The next presidential election cycle is already on the horizon, and the window for states to update their laws before 2028 is narrower than it seems. The closer an election gets, the harder it becomes to make procedural changes without controversy.

Which is why this kind of reform works best when it’s done early and with broad agreement.

Faithless elector laws won’t dominate headlines. They’re not designed to. But they address a real, if underappreciated, point of vulnerability in the system.

And they reflect a larger principle worth keeping in mind: defending democracy means protecting the will of the voters at every stage of the process, from the first to the last.

When it comes to presidential elections, getting that final step right matters.

Photo credit: Kelly Sikkema on Unsplash