One who elects, or has the right of choice; a person who is entitled to take part in an election, or to give his vote in favor of a candidate for office
any of the German princes who were entitled to vote in the election of new emperor of the Holy Roman Empire
An elector is a member of the electoral college. People vote for electors in each state to represent them in the presidential elections. someone who has the right to vote in an election. German Kurfürst. Prince of the Holy Roman Empire who had a right to participate in electing the German emperor. Beginning 1273, and with the confirmation of the Golden Bull, there were seven electors: the archbishops of Trier, Mainz, and Cologne; the duke of Saxony; the count palatine of the Rhine; the margrave of Brandenburg; and the king of Bohemia. Other electorates were created much later for Bavaria (1623-1778), Hanover (1708), and Hesse-Kassel (1803), but by the 17th century the electors' office had become meaningless because the Habsburg dynasty produced the de facto emperors. The office disappeared when the empire was abolished in 1806