Essay Electoral College

The Electoral College was designed in 1787 at the Constitutional Convention. A variety of ideas were originally brought to attention. Two significant and highly regarded options were a) Congress selects the

Beginning in America in 1787, the Electoral College was originally created during the Constitutional Convention to help make a fair way for the president to be elected without giving too much power to either the national government or individual states. Over the years, the Electoral College has undergone a few changes in attempt to make it more fair, but there is still much debate about whether or not the Electoral College is the most effective way to elect a president. Some people believe that the Electoral College does an excellent job of creating an equal distribution of votes across all ethnicities and social classes of America. In contrast, others think that the Electoral College does not give an accurate portrayal of the popular

The second idea was for the state legislatures to select the president, this option was denied because it raised concerns that the President may drawback to heavily on federal authority because it would be at the hand of the states, which were not huge supporters at the time of centralized government. Finally they proposed that a direct popular vote be held, but this was denied for multiple reasons. One reason being that the states would not have the communication tools to be sufficiently informed on the candidates overall and would just choose the favorite from their own state or region, without a factual base for doing so, another being that the large states would have a significant advantage over small states.

The Constitutional Convention of 1787 went over several systems that were proposed for electing a new president which included but were not limited to by the governors of the states, by the state legislators, and by direct popular vote. The issue was soon referred to the Committee of Eleven on Postponed Matters, where the plan for the current electoral college was devised. The electoral college issued each state a number of electors equal to the sum of the

The history of the Electoral college goes back to 1804 to the framers of the constitution. Many of the nations founding fathers actually did not trust direct democracy and wanted to create a system that had balance between power of the people and power of the government. As James Madison described , he was worried about “ factions” in democracy. “These groups of citizens with a common interest in a proposal that would violate the right of citizens or the nation as a whole” (Joe Miller), Madison's fear which Alexis de Tocqueville later named as the “tyranny of majority”, was that these factions could become the fifty percent and win the majority. Subsequently delegates proposed a variety of different methods to elect the president in order for this to not occur. According to Joe Miller’s article the delegates voted more than 60 times before they finally chose a

The electoral college, per Wikipedia, is a mechanism set up to select the president and vice president of the United States. (The Electoral college, 2016) It was during the Constitutional Convention of 1787 that the founders established Article 2. Article 2 Section 1 details the innerworkings of the executive branch of government. The constitution states, “Each State shall appoint, in such Manner as the Legislature thereof may direct, a Number of Electors, equal to the whole Number of Senators and Representatives to which the State may be entitled in the Congress”. (The Constitution of the United States, n.d.) The framers of the Constitution had many different ideas about how the selection of our president should go but ultimately

The Electoral College was constructed to be a compromise between the different ways of selecting the president. Originally the delegates of the Constitutional Convention wanted Congress to select eh president, while others preferred the direct popular election (Schumaker 13). While the Constitutional Convention proceeded, one of the founders established a "Committee of the Eleven" to create a compromise for selecting the president (Schumaker 13). The reason for the idea of the Electoral College many opposed to the direct popular vote because people feared that the less popular vote would feel inferior to other states (Schumaker 13). This method was widely accepted there was

One might question why the country didn't just begin to elect their presidents with a direct election system. Was the idea never suggested? On the contrary, it was suggested before that of the Electoral College. The main reason the thought wasn't taken seriously is because, "…the worry was that, in a vast country with fitful communications, ordinary citizens were likely to know next to nothing about would-be Presidents from afar. Someone in, say, Georgia 'would be unable to assess the qualifications' of an aspiring President from Massachusetts, and thus couldn't vote intelligently," (Solomon). "The prospect of a direct popular vote also upset the small states, which spent the entire Constitutional Convention trying to stop the populous, powerful states (such as Virginia, New York, and Massachusetts) from taking over. When Gouverneur Morris suggested that the President "ought to be elected by the people at large," Roger Sherman of Connecticut offered a Bronx cheer. "The people at large," he

The decision on how to choose who these electors would vote for was left up to the states. Most states eventually decided to use the general ticket system where all of that state’s votes go to one candidate, whoever receives a majority of the votes in that state. The system for solving ties or failure to win a majority in the electoral college is to send the vote to the House of Representatives. There, each state is given one vote to cast for president. A vote is taken until one candidate has a majority.

If we were listening in on the conversation going on at the table we would be able to see that there were three predominant theories on how the president should be elected. The first idea was for Congress to choose the president by voting on the candidates they saw fit. (Hendricks) The main problem with this idea was the tilt of power towards the legislative branch. If the legislative branch was given this express power of ushering in the executive not only would it tilt the balance of power towards the legislative but it would also open the door wide to corruption and bargaining. The second option on the table was the election of the president of the United States by the state legislatures (much like the Senators were first elected). (Hendricks) The biggest fear behind this idea was the possibility of an executive that was too intertwined with the state, an executive who slowly worked with the state and helped them erode the power of the central government. This would undermine the whole idea of the republic that the founding fathers were trying to build and thus was an idea that was quickly disregarded. The third and final proposal was the direct election of the president by the people, or now more famously known as the popular or national vote. (Smith) The biggest problem behind this proposition is the likeliness of the electorate to vote for a “favorite son” or a figure that they identify with personally rather than politically and

The Electoral College is a constitutional system written in 1787, in this system “each state selects as many electors as it has representatives in Congress”, members of the college casts ballots for individuals, the individual with the most electoral votes becomes the President of the United States (Shelley 80). It is

The Electoral College was established in 1788 by Article II of the US Constitution revised by the Twelfth Amendment (ratified June 15, 1804), the Fourteenth Amendment (ratified July 1868), and the Twenty-Third Amendment (ratified Mar. 29, 1961) (tumblr.com). Electoral college made up of 538 electors each state is allowed one elector for each Representative and Senator (Washington DC) is allowed 3 Electors a group of electors is chosen by each political party each presidential candidate has their own unique slate of potential Electors. Political parties chose the electors for the slate these people are chosen to recognize their service and dedication to that political party. When voters cast their vote on election day they are voting to select their state’s Electors.

Discuss the history of the Electoral College of the United States. Also, explain how it works: The United States Electoral College was created when the Constitution was ratified. The method was determined by a compromise between the Framers who wanted Congress to choose the president, and those who wanted citizens to pick (O’Connor & Sabato 276). Today, the minimum number of electoral votes is 3, because each state has 2 senators represented and at least one representative. If a candidate wins the majority of votes in that state (as in, 51% or more of the voters chose them), the candidate wins all of the votes for that state. If 60% of the voters in Florida choose a certain candidate, he or she would win all 29 of the votes. This is generally known as the “winner take all” system. A candidate needs to win

Every four years, on the Tuesday following the first Monday of November, millions of U.S. citizens go to local voting booths to elect, among other officials, the next president and vice president of their country. Their votes will be recorded and counted, and winners will be declared. But the results of the popular vote are not guaranteed to stand because the Electoral College has not cast its vote.

The original framers of the constitution obviously preferred the electoral system to a direct popular election. The argument that historians give for this is that they preferred this system