elector

noun

1. A person eligible to vote in an election; a member of an electorate, a voter.

   “Where the qualifications of the electors are the ſame, whether they have to chooſe a ſmall or a large number their votes will fall upon thoſe in whom they have the moſt confidence; whether thoſe happen to be men of large fortunes or of moderate property or of no property at all.”

   “In the courſe of not many years muſt the electours of one place grapple in the waves for their town, and at preſent a ſeptennial conſequence is given to a heap of ruins.”

   “But in France is practice of bribing electors is almost unknown, whilst it is notoriously and publicly carried on in England.”

2. (British, Commonwealth)A person eligible to vote in an election; a member of an electorate, a voter.

   “I Think this Letter, which was ſent to me by my Electors, worth printing, becauſe as it has convinced me, it may convince others.”

   “The constitutional right of the Electors to exact pledges, from Candidates who are soliciting the honour of representing the nation in Parliament, has been frequently agitated, and as loudly contended for as manfully resisted, at different periods of effervescence; [...]”

   “India is to have a new Constitution, under which certain limited powers will be assigned to elected representatives. [...] Who, then, are to be the electors in rural constituencies? Only a few general statements can be made on this point. Women must wait, and, in the country at least, they will not mind; there is to be no literacy test, but military service will very properly qualify.”

3. A person eligible to vote in an election; a member of an electorate, a voter.

   “The secondary electors will be formed into twelve electoral colleges according to the religious community to which they belong: the number of colleges to be allotted to each religious community will be proportionate to the number of secondary electors belonging to the several communities; and each electoral college will elect one member of the [Legislative] Council.”

   “Presidents have never been elected directly by individual voters. They vote for electors from their respective state. Each state then chooses its electors that equals to its representation in Congress. The electors then vote for the president. In most states, the candidate who wins the popular vote also wins the electoral vote of that state.”

4. (alt-of, historical)A person eligible to vote in an election; a member of an electorate, a voter.

   “Whan the electours profered to make him [Ottokar II of Bohemia] emperour, he refuſed it, ſaiyng, that it was a greatter thynge to be kynge of Boheme, than emperour of Rome.”

   “In one of the conflicts, the [Holy Roman] emperor himſelf was put to flight, and very near being made priſoner by the elector of Saxony.”

   “[T]he seven Imperial electors who chose the [Holy Roman] emperor controlled him by the pledges exacted from him as the price of his election. These electors were the king of Bohemia, the rulers of Saxony, Brandenburg, and the Palatinate, and the "spiritual electors"—the archbishops of Cologne, Trier, and Mainz.”

   “Hanover, seat of the electors, was an attractive small town set on the River Leine. [...] The electoral court was in residence at Herrenhausen only between May and October, so that by the beginning of November 1709 the only activity was in one of the private wings where Caroline of Ansbach, wife of the elector’s heir, had chosen to give birth to her second child.”

5. (historical)A German prince entitled to elect the emperor of the Holy Roman Empire; a prince-elector.

   “In one of the conflicts, the [Holy Roman] emperor himſelf was put to flight, and very near being made priſoner by the elector of Saxony.”

   “[T]he seven Imperial electors who chose the [Holy Roman] emperor controlled him by the pledges exacted from him as the price of his election. These electors were the king of Bohemia, the rulers of Saxony, Brandenburg, and the Palatinate, and the "spiritual electors"—the archbishops of Cologne, Trier, and Mainz.”

   “Hanover, seat of the electors, was an attractive small town set on the River Leine. [...] The electoral court was in residence at Herrenhausen only between May and October, so that by the beginning of November 1709 the only activity was in one of the private wings where Caroline of Ansbach, wife of the elector’s heir, had chosen to give birth to her second child.”