ER(electro-rheological) fluids, which are represented as Bingham fluids, have large and reversible changes in yield shear stresses by application of an electric field. In this paper, ER fluids are employed in a short squeeze film damper. The modified Reynolds equation for an ER short squeeze film damper is theoretically solved to get the approximate solutions of pressure profiles and damping coefficients. The theoretical approximate solutions are compared with numerical ones and both results are coincided very well. Both the direct and cross coupled damping coefficients substantially increase with increasing the yield shear stress of ER fluids. Furthermore, the synchronous response analysis of a rigid rotor supported on ER short squeeze film dampers is performed to show the improved damping capability of an ER short squeeze film damper.