In the mid-1980s, political defection meant fleeing the Soviet Union for the United States. Today in North Carolina, it means electors switching their votes from Republican to Democrat.
In light of the controversy in Florida and the legal bickering over hand counts, recounts and chad, some have wondered whether any of North Carolina's 14 Republican electors might feel that Vice President Al Gore should hold the presidency.
The 538 members of the electoral college, who were nominated to represent their states' voters, will meet Dec. 18 to officially vote for president. Although electors traditionally vote according to their state's popular vote, they have been known to defect. "There have been sporadic occasional faithless electors," said Professor of Political Science John Aldrich, adding that the first instance occurred in 1820, when a New Hampshire elector failed to vote for James Monroe, despite his home state's popular vote.
But Aldrich said such switches in past history have not been Republican to Democrat, or vice versa. "It's typically not cross-party, but more likely to [go to]... a third-party candidate," he said.
In 1968, a North Carolinian Republican elector broke ranks and voted for States Rights Party candidate George Wallace rather than Republican Richard Nixon.
Ted Arrington, a political science professor at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, was doubtful that anyone would defect in an election this close. "I'll believe it when I see it," he said. "Their vote would make a difference in this election. In the past when somebody had defected it was when their vote didn't matter."
Steve Rader, an elector from Washington, N.C., said he thought it would be dishonorable for him or others to defect. "It's a matter of trust when you are selected, and I think it would be wrong to breach that trust," he said.
At-large elector Fran Barnhart, of Charlotte, agreed that crossing party lines would be unethical, and added that after the 1968 election, the state established a statute to impose penalties on an elector who defected.
This year, Barnhart said she had heard that one North Carolina elector had briefly considered defecting; she could not recall the elector's name. "There was a man who was trying to do this, but as far as I know [the party] did not get a call about this because he found out it wasn't possible," she said.
Dan Gurley, political director of the state Republican party, said he had not heard of anybody considering such a switch. Aldrich and Arrington, however, said restrictions on who electors could vote for were legally questionable. "Most constitutional scholars believe that the Supreme Court would refuse to impose a penalty for being unfaithful," Arrington said.
Aldrich added that the state's penalties for defection would basically consist of minor fines, but the state Republican party would be able to impose penalties that would likely be more costly to these long-time party faithfuls. "Being an elector is one of the highest honors a party activist can receive," Gurley wrote in an e-mail. "Anyone who violated that trust would probably be removed from the party and never again be allowed to participate in any way."
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