Date post: | 02-Jan-2016 |
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What is the Electoral College?
Electors: popularly-elected representatives formally elect the President and Vice
President of the United States.
So basically…
Rather than directly voting for the President and Vice President, United States citizens vote for electors.
The creation of the Electoral College WHO:
The Framers (creators) of the U.S. Constitution.
WHAT: The Electoral College:
Article III, Section 1, Paragraphs 2 and 3 in the U.S. Constitution.
WHEN: 1787 – 1791.
WHERE: Constitutional Convention,
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. WHY:
Representation, Fear, and Knowledge
Framers: Why we need electors
James Madison, Federalist No. 39: Constitution was designed to be a
mixture of state-based and population-based government. The Congress would have two houses:
the state-based Senate population-based House of Representatives.
President would be elected by a mixture of the two modes
Representation
Balance representation (power) big states (like New York) small states (like Delaware)
States were already suspicious of giving the government too much control over state affairs.
SOLUTION
The people oppose allowing the national government to decide a presidential election State elections Each state cast an overall electoral vote
for the winning candidate
Fear
Believed that the general public did not know enough about candidates or politics to cast an adequate vote.
Create a system to keep the general “masses” from directly voting for a President.
State electors cast official votes for President and Vice-President after the popular vote occurred
Appointed electors men of character knowledgeable about politics agree upon and select candidates who
could represent the majority of the people as a President.
SOLUTION: A “fool-proof” plan
Knowledge How were citizens supposed to know
anything about candidates from other states? No “mass media” transportation and communication were
difficult. Unlikely that even those citizens who
were knowledgeable about politics could be fully informed to make decisions about candidates from other states.
Justification
Electors would keep the people from voting on candidates from their own state. (No candidate would get a national
majority if that happened)
Today
The election process is basically the same: voting allows a voter to “tell” electors
which candidate the voter wants the elector to vote for.
“faithless electors” No law stating that electors have to vote for
the candidate that they originally pledged their vote to!
An Ideal Election
President =
Educated Man + Political Knowledge + Majority Popular Vote + Majority Electoral Vote
Compare it to the World Series…
A comparison by George Will, newspaper columnist, journalist, author, Pulitzer Prize winner.
A World Series winner must be the first to win four of a possible seven games*
GM 1: Yankees 10, Red Sox 7 GM 2: Yankees 3, Red Sox 1 GM 3: Yankees 19, Red Sox 8 GM 4: Red Sox 6, Yankees 4 GM 5: Red Sox 5, Yankees 4 GM 6: Red Sox 4, Yankees 2 GM 7: Red Sox 10, Yankees 3
*Our example will use the 2004 Championship Series: Red Sox defeat Yankees. The concept, however, is the same.
If the World Series were won by total points (popular vote)…
GM 1: Yankees 10, Red Sox 7 GM 2: Yankees 3, Red Sox 1 GM 3: Yankees 19, Red Sox 8 GM 4: Red Sox 6, Yankees 4 GM 5: Red Sox 5, Yankees 4 GM 6: Red Sox 4, Yankees 2 GM 7: Red Sox 10, Yankees 3
Yankees: 45
Red Sox: 41