Lloyd W. Bailey

Who is Lloyd W. Bailey?

Dr. Lloyd W. Bailey is a faithless elector, physician and ophthalmologist, now retired, from Rocky Mount, North Carolina, who achieved notoriety during the 1968 U.S. presidential election when he became the 145th faithless elector in the history of the United States Electoral College.

A Republican-pledged elector, Bailey cast his vote for American Independent Party presidential nominee George Wallace and his running-mate Curtis LeMay, instead of for Richard Nixon and Spiro Agnew, who had carried his state. Wallace and LeMay won elections in five states with their 45 electoral votes and Bailey's vote gave them a total of 46 electoral votes.

Bailey at first claimed that when he was chosen as an elector by state party convention he had not pledged to cast his vote for Nixon. Bailey further claimed that since Wallace had won in the district he represented, he was obligated to cast his vote for Wallace. He also claimed that he forgot all about it until a party official reminded him of his electoral duties.

Bailey, a staunch conservative and a member of John Birch Society, later admitted that he did not vote for Nixon because the President-elect had announced his intention to appoint Henry Kissinger and Daniel Patrick Moynihan government positions, and had asked Chief Justice Earl Warren to stay in office through the end of June 1969. Bailey stated that if altering his vote would have changed the outcome of the election he would not have done it, and that his vote for Wallace was simply a protest. He became known as a "protest elector".