noun

• 1A person who has the right to vote in an election, especially one for members of a national parliament.

  ‘close to 60 per cent of the 60,000 registered electors voted’

  More example sentences

  • ‘In determining what is a majority of the electors voting at such election, reference shall be had to the highest number of votes cast at such election for the candidates for any office or on any question.’
  • ‘At the last elections in May 2002, about 15,000 electors chose a postal vote.’
  • ‘But a survey of 135 constituencies by the Guardian last month found record numbers of electors applying for postal votes, in some cases a tripling over four years ago.’
  • ‘Seymour challenged the constitutionality of the bill, pointing out that the state constitution required electors to vote in person in the election districts in which they reside.’
  • ‘It was encouraging to see that 90 percent of the Haitian electors had registered, and that 60 percent of those electors have voted in the first round of the elections.’
  • ‘The Constitution requires that all electors vote on the same day, and this has always been done.’
  • ‘A narrow majority of English electors voted Conservative at the recent election, only to see Labour reinstalled in government.’
  • ‘Labour's huge majorities owe much to a decision by electors to vote tactically: a kind of spontaneous electoral reform.’
  • ‘Until 1882, the way an elector voted was recorded in a register that anyone could see.’
  • ‘Each elector has two votes, one for a constituency member and one for the party of his or her choice.’
  • ‘Checks, for example, from interest groups, the EU, or the House of Lords, the reformers might point out, are restraints on the elected government and the electors who voted for it.’
  • ‘Every person who is an Irish citizen and is included in the 2002/2003 register of electors is entitled to vote at the referendum.’
  • ‘‘The second ballot would contain party lists of candidates, and the elector would vote for the party of their choice,’ he said.’
  • ‘Under the proportional system, electors get two votes, one for the electorate MP and one for their party preference.’
  • ‘The Government's approach recognises that some communities may want to retain their existing licensing trust arrangements until a majority of the trust's electors vote in favour of competition.’
  • ‘Altogether, 61 electoral pilot schemes including all postal ballots, will proceed, offering 6.5 million electors new voting opportunities.’
  • ‘The turnout is crucial and both sides were canvassing frantically on Friday night to get electors to use their votes on the EU's Nice treaty.’
  • ‘In this system, if there are n candidates, then electors cast one vote for every candidate they find acceptable and none for those whom they deem unacceptable.’
  • ‘The only way to ensure good representation is for electors to vote in quality candidates who are prepared to consult.’
  • ‘The Nationalist government conducted a state referendum in 1933, in which the electors voted two to one in favour of separating from the Commonwealth.’

  Synonyms

  voter, member of the electorate, enfranchised person, constituent, member of a constituency, selector

  View synonyms

  1. 1.1(in the US) a member of the electoral college.
     ‘After America's fraud-tainted election of 1876, Congress enacted legislation requiring that presidential electors be chosen based on the law in place on election day.’
     More example sentences

     • ‘The idea was adapted by the framers of the American Constitution in 1787, each state appointing as many electors as it had members of Congress, these electors then meeting to choose the President of the USA.’
     • ‘It's the reason the Florida legislature could contemplate sending its own set of electors to Congress if it had lost in the Supreme Court.’
     • ‘One is that the Florida legislature, Republican dominated, would have selected the Bush electors to vote in the Electoral College.’
     • ‘From the beginning in 1789 down through the unforgettable election of 2000, it has been the electors who cast the votes that really matter.’
     • ‘But here's the thing - this is only the outcome if the electors actually vote for the candidate that wins the majority in their state.’
     • ‘The freedom of the electors to cast their votes for a candidate other than the one chosen by the people of their state is only one of the many peculiar features of the reactionary and archaic Electoral College structure.’
     • ‘Do the electors have to vote for the candidate who received the most votes in their state?’
     • ‘It used to be that voters voted directly for presidential electors, whose names would appear on the ballots, as Donald described for Abraham Lincoln.’
     • ‘This tie came about because all the Republican electors dutifully cast their votes for Jefferson and Burr, the two candidates endorsed by their party caucus.’

• 2historical usually as title A German prince entitled to take part in the election of the Holy Roman Emperor.

  ‘the Elector of Brandenburg’

  More example sentences

  • ‘William at first could only defend, but after he rebuilt the Netherlands army and allied with the Holy Roman Emperor and the elector of Brandenburg, the provinces were recovered.’
  • ‘Accordingly, in 1698 the two rulers rapidly agreed that they would support the candidacy for the Spanish throne of the young grandson of the emperor who was elector of Bavaria.’
  • ‘Something similar occurred at the same time in Regensburg, near Nuremberg, where the electors of the Holy Roman Empire met at regular intervals.’
  • ‘The agreement came too late to free Prussia to pursue all she wanted with her full strength in Poland, but it left the Rhenish princes and electors at the Republic's mercy.’
  • ‘The Archbishop lost control of the city in 1288, but retained the right to crown German kings and was acknowledged as one of the seven imperial electors by the Emperor Charles IV in 1356.’