What is a renegade elector?

Answer 1

A renegade elector is a member of the Electoral College who casts a vote for a person other than the one he or she has promised to vote for. If you vote for President, you don't vote for the presidential candidate, you vote for an elector who has pledged that he or she will vote for that candidate. This pledge is not legally binding. Any elector may vote for any candidate regardless of his/her pledge. The Electoral College was set up this way becaue the framers of the Constitution did not fully trust the general electorate. This is because more and more voters were coming from unpropertied classes, unlike the Framers. They feared the possibility that a popular vote might elect a person who threatened their property interests. At the time it was expected that electors would only be persons with property interests. Thus, if a president who theatened property interests were elected by the general public, it was expected that that person would vote for the more "responsible" candidate instead and prevent that person from becoming president.