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The Electoral College System For Electing The United States Essay

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With the Electoral College system for electing the United States president winning the most popular votes is not a guarantee a candidate will become president. They must also get 270 Electoral College votes to win. A candidate can become president if he gets at least 270 Electoral College votes and does not have the most popular votes. Many people do not like the Electoral college system for this reason. They feel the person with the most popular votes should win.

Unfortunately for them, the Founding Fathers did not have much faith in the American people selecting the President. They believed the American people 's political knowledge was limited so they were not qualified to elect their President.

At a meeting of the Constitution Convention held on July 17, 1787, Delegate Mason stated “A popular election, in this case, is radically vicious. The ignorance of the people would put it in the power of some one set of men dispersed the candidates.” At the same convention on July 19, 1787, Delegate Gerry stated that “The people are uninformed and would be misled by a few designing men.”

The Founding Fathers were afraid if they gave unlimited power to elect the president to some politically uninformed people it could lead to a tyranny of the majority. To keep this from happening, they formed the Electoral College system that would be used to elect the president. They felt the Electoral College system would keep the election of the president from the politically

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