Overview

"The day after the 2016 general election, Americans were divided: some were celebrating while others were trying to come to terms with Donald Trump's victory over Hillary Clinton. What they did not realize was that the election was far from over. On December 19, 2016, 538 mostly nameless individuals met at state capitols across the country as members of the Electoral College to officially elect the President. Some electors, both Republican and Democrat, decided to go rogue and not vote for the candidate who won their states' popular vote, bringing problematic questions to the fore-What exactly is the Electoral College? How do states choose their electors? How do electors in turn choose their candidates? In The Faithless? The Untold Story of the Electoral College, journalist Emily Conrad interviews these so-called ""faithless electors"" who put their personal safety, as well as their political reputations, at risk to vote according to their consciences rather than toeing party lines. Interweaving tales of the founding and evolution of the Electoral College with these individuals' stories, the book humanizes the country's fraught electoral process."

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9781735038407

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A well-written, approachable look into the most important part of our government that no one knows anything about. -Mark Lemley, Director of Stanford Program in Law, Science, and Technology By discovering the thinking and motives of the so-called faithless electors who in 2016 tried to fix the broken, opaque, unfair, out-of-date process of the Electoral College system, this book reveals both why the American people are betrayed by this system of choosing the president and how individual citizens can take the responsibility for change. Emily Conrad has demystified the Electoral College and brought a needed sense of reality to the often arcane lawyerly debates about this otiose artifact of the 18th century. Because demographic change means that in this century the loser of the national popular vote routinely has a good chance to win the electoral college, this book's call to reform should be heard. -Reed Hundt, CEO and co-founder of Making Every Vote Count Emily Conrad provides the authoritative account of the extraordinary effort by presidential electors to deny Donald Trump the presidency through the formation of the Hamilton elector movement in 2016. While they were unsuccessful, a record number of so-called faithless electors emerged and their actions ultimately led to a Supreme Court battle over an elector's right to vote as they wish. In-depth interviews with key players make Conrad's work an invaluable resource for anyone looking to understand the inner-working of the 2016 Electoral College. -Robert Alexander, Founding Director of Ohio Northern University's Institute for Civics and Public Policy The Electoral College has been around since the founding of the United States yet is little understood by many people. In this book, Emily Conrad interviewed a number of electors to see why they did not follow their state's popular vote and what their actions tell us about this institution. It is a well-written account that brings the Electoral College to life and reveals the important role it plays in American politics. -Darrell West, Vice President of Governance Studies at the Brookings Institution

Author Information

Emily Conrad attended Wofford College in her hometown of Spartanburg, South Carolina, where she graduated summa cum laude with a triple major in economics, German, and Spanish, and the distinction of Phi Beta Kappa. She completed a Master of Law in China studies with a focus in international relations at Peking University in Beijing, China, where she was a Yenching Academy fellow. Emily enjoys reading about history and politics, singing and attending the opera, as well as playing classical piano. The Faithless? The Untold Story of the Electoral College is her first book.

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