“a clean slate of Electors" vs. “a clean list of Electors"

[GoodTaste]

Ginni Thomas pressed Ariz. lawmakers to help reverse Trump’s loss
The wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas urged two legislators to choose “a clean slate of Electors,” according to emails obtained by The Post.

Source: Washington Post (executive summary on the homepage)


The word slate here clearly means a list of candidates for nomination or election.

The question is rhetorical: "a clean slate of Electors" sound beautifully worded (or written) while “a clean list of Electors" sounds native and less-educated. That is, "a clean list" might sound odd in English. I am not sure.

I am not sure that this sense of mine is correct. My sense of English is still not sharp enough.

 

[emsr2d2]

The reason that "a clean slate" sounds better is because it's a fixed expression.

https://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/a+clean+slate

 

[probus]

Clean slate is a fixed expression. It is synonymous with expressions like fresh start and new beginning.

The word slate is quite common in American political discourse, but much less so in countries that follow the British common law, alrhough we sonetimes use slate here in Canada. In the American two-party system a slate is a party's list of candidates for various offices. The word ticket is also used for that. For example you could say "The Republicans are putting up a strong slate of candidates" or "I'm going to vote the straight Democratic ticket."

 

[Tdol]

I've heard it used it BrE.

 

[Skrej]

The term 'slate' in this context comes from the rock which has many uses, one of them being a slate writing board. When your board was full you had to clean the slate to erase the old writing. This involved wiping it with a rag. After couple of uses, the chalk dust left behind would build up a thick enough layer that it was difficult to read the new material, so you'd have to wash it with water. Hence you quite literally had to 'clean the slate' to start with a truly fresh and clean surface. This become an idiom/metaphor from starting completely from scratch.

Slate was also the original material used for chalkboards in classrooms, as well as shop signs or other such temporary lists and menus.