elector
noun
- person chosen to represent a group of individuals in casting a ballot in an election
Wiktionary
noun
- 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.”