According to Madison’s Notes they considered several other forms of electing the executive before the electoral college. The first introduced was election by the people as a whole. However, this was deemed not viable because it was entirely contrary to the form of a Republican government. Also, the election of the executive should be done by those who know most of eminent characters and qualifications however, the people as a whole know the least about these things. Further, it was argued that the people would only vote for someone from their state because no one had a national character and would only recognize those from their states. Also, the people are less wealthy and would vote for someone that would only protect the interests of the poor and not the interests of the …show more content…
This was disputed in Madison’s Notes however because there would be no separation of powers. They feared that if the executive were to be elected by the national legislature the executive would become a creature of congress. They feared that if the executive was chosen by the national legislature it would create a cabal therefore by distancing these two branches that cabal was avoided. In Federalist 68 Hamilton argues that a major danger to a republican form of government is a cabal or a bias that forms from people selecting the executive. Hamilton argued that this would occur if the executive was chosen by either branch of the national legislature. Furthermore, in Madison’s Note’s it is argued that if the president was elected by the House they feared that the executive would therefore be an executive for the large states and if elected by the Senate then they would be an executive of the small states. They were very apprehensive about giving the power of election to the national legislature also because of the 3/5ths compromise and how that would now disproportionately favor southern
The Founding Fathers created the Electoral College for the U.S. to elect a President into office. Again this connects to the Founding Fathers fear of pure democracy and the fear of one state having more power than others. To impose the Electoral College System the Founding Fathers had to devise the
The Electoral College was created in the year 1787. Before it was established, the men who drafted the Constitution also known as the Framers debated several formats for electing the president and vice president for the United States. One of the formats they were debating was to have the Congress choose the president however some felt that there may be corruption, inappropriate political issues and possible interference from foreign powers (Kimberling, W.C. 2008). The other format the Framers were debating were to have the State legislatures select president but it was also rejected because of fear that the president that is obligated to the State legislature have a possibility to wear down federal authority and underestimate the idea of the federation (Kimberling, W.C.
The Electoral College is also an example of a plan implemented by the Framers that does not always uphold the common interests of the people. While many reasons are cited as to why the Framers chose this system, two stand out as being most prominent: They were concerned about representation for small states, and they wanted a precautionary system to ensure that the official who took the oath of President was indeed able to sufficiently perform these duties. Electors were supposed to vote with the majority decision of their state, but there was no law saying they had to. The latter of the two explanations is most undemocratic, although the Electoral College system is
Our Founding Fathers had great concern over the topic of the government obtaining too much power over the people and with that in mind they constructed a system of indirect election where citizens would choose an elector. That system would distant the citizens from directly electing the president, avoiding any possibility to create tyranny. Their fears were about whether citizens could exercise the best judgement and their capability to fully understand and make good choices in voting. They did not want a group to go off in the wrong direction and take control over others. They thought that a chosen group of more educated and elite individuals elected by the people would be able to better interpret the situation and exercise better judgement. In a way, they were trying to safeguard democracy by instituting the Electoral College as the method to elect our presidents.
Established in Article II, Section 1 of the Constitution, the Electoral College is a system utilized in The United States of America to select the President and Vice President. This process was established by the Founding Fathers in 1787, when the Constitution was written. The original purpose of the electoral system was to ensure that those who select the leaders of this nation were the most knowledgeable and informed people that America had to offer. The electors - the elected officials that make up the Electoral College - are elected to office through a general election wherein the entire national population has the right to vote. The President of the United States, however, is actually elected to office by the Electoral College only, regardless of the popular vote of the citizens in general. Thus, the Presidential election is the only federal election in our nation where the vote of the citizenry does not directly determine the victor. Despite the fact that this electoral system has been in place and operational for over two hundred years, the Electoral College is looked upon by some as an honorable system, whereas others view it as faulty. The Electoral College is not fair and equitable because it is based on population, it is not trusted by the people, and it is unjust to the wishes of the citizens.
According to History Central, the creation of electoral college was to be able to prevent people who don’t understand anything and will only vote for the son of their state. Although that might happen in the past, it would have a less chance of that because all the worries of founding fathers are all solved. In modern day, we have all the sources to find the information
Another reason Alexander Hamilton gave for not having congress elect the president was that the founders wanted to reassure states that they had not given up all their power to a federal government. In order to ratify the constitution, the framers knew that it would have to be approved in each of the thirteen states. They also knew that these states would be skeptical of a powerful central government that would have the ability to take away all their rights. So, they would have to make sure that each of these states was comfortable with the amount of power given to each branch of the central government.
James Madison wanted to insure that all branches of government are independent to assure independency for each of the states. Madison didn’t want to give a specific branch to much power, so Madison believed that conflicts of interest were inherent in human nature. Meaning that Madison thought no matter what the issue is, there will be conflict on whether or not it is constitutional. Therefore Madison didn’t want a specific branch of government to control society. Madison also didn’t want each branch to be completely dependent on each other. But Madison and the other framers did not want to make all of the branches elective because it might have practical difficulties.
When the Framers began working on the Constitution, they wanted to create a government which could survive centuries with minimal changes. One of the most important ideas the Framers included in the Constitution was the Electoral College. They believed it to be very important because it would prevent the direct election of a president. As Hamilton explained, “the immediate election should be made by men most capable of analyzing the qualities adapted to the station”(Federalist 68). This means that the Framers did not trust the people of the U.S. to make smart decisions on their own and wanted a way to control the voting. This was because the Framers feared that a charismatic leader could persuade a population of his views and end up creating a dictatorship. By using the Electoral College, the Framers believed that it would insure that a qualified person would take office. Another reason that the Framers created the Electoral College was to give smaller states more power. The Framers made it so that each state would have the same number of electoral votes as members in congress. This satisfied the smaller states. It meant that each person's’ vote in smaller states counted for more than those who lived in larger states. Overall, the Electoral college was put into place as a safety net for
The founding fathers created the Electoral College as a compromise for the Constitutional Convention. Since the delegates could not agree on a solution for the problem of creating a system to elect the President, it was given to the Committee of Eleven on Postponed Matters. Ultimately, that committee decided to create the Electoral College. The first system consisted of electors which each had two votes for president. Whoever obtained the most votes would become president, and the person who received the second most amount of votes In order to compromise for the best solution possible, they added a limitation that electors could not cast votes for two candidates from their own state.They justified this restriction for three reasons. One reason the committee chose to use the Electoral College was the electorate system promotes federalism or a system of government where the individual states share power with the central state. One example of a federalist system is the United States. The United States’s central government sets laws for the whole country, but each individual state can make their own
The electoral college was established from the Constitution. When the Framers had gathered to make the Constitution, James Wilson from Pennsylvania had proposed direct elections. James Madison, however, opposed to direct elections in fear that it would put the south at a disadvantage by being outnumbered by the north’s population. This lead the Framers into creating
When the direct election of a national leader was first posed at a national convention in Philadelphia, the father of the Constitution, James Madison denied the request. He said in his justification, “The right of suffrage was much more diffusive in the Northern than the Southern States; and the latter could have no influence in the election on the score of Negroes.” In plain language if a direct democracy was put in place, the North would outnumber the South, because slaves, who were roughly half of the South couldn’t vote. Though the electoral college, allowed for southern states to count its forty percent of their slaves, in the calculation of its population, hence its electors. Essentially, the electoral college is a dated, non-functional system designed for a time in the United
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, worked great in the 1800’s because there was slavery. As Leon Friedman states, “Not only was the electoral college system based on slavery, it was also based upon a distrust of democracy. Alexander Hamilton in Federalist No 68, explained that the “immediate election [of the President] should be made by men most capable of analyzing the qualities adapted to the station.”(Friedman) The government couldn't trust the decision to the people. Rather, a “small number of persons, selected by their fellow-citizens from the general mass, will be most likely to possess the information and discernment requisite to such complicated investigations.”. Democracy was quite young and Americans didn’t trust it.
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