why did the framers create the electoral college?why did the framers create the electoral college?

Is the Compact for America Plan to Amend the Constitution Constitutional? It is no more appropriate for judges to refuse to enforce the Constitution against intolerant or overreaching majorities than it is for the president to refuse to defend the nation against enemy invasion. Electoral College History How did we get the Electoral College? 1 person found it helpful taskmasters The framers of our Constitution created the electoral college rather than have direct popular elections for President for the reason that the framer of the Constitution didn't trust direct democracy. a. I think the Electoral College is a good way of ensuring each voter is represented equally. In that event, state law could not effectively regulate the process. Although not short of controversies, the Electoral College is perceived as a good ideology for American politics. As best you can, explain how the Electoral College determines which candidate wins the presidency. This is the first of a series of posts on the subject. PPTX Why We Should Abolish the Electoral College - MyLO Nearly everyone agreed that Washington would be the first president. Accessed at The Library of Congress Web site. Since the nations founding, hundreds of proposals to reform or eliminate the Electoral College have aimed to change how Americans elect a president. Copyright 1996-2023 The Pew Charitable Trusts. Unless the Electoral College were very large, however, this would require electoral districts that combined states and/or cut across state lines. The framers recognized this especially would be a problem for voters considering candidates from other states. isthe William Rand Kenan Jr. Noting that the right to procreate is one of the basic civil rights of man, the Court held that government action that substantially restricts the exercise of such a right must be subjected to heightened scrutiny to ensure that the limitation on the right is truly necessary. A: Whales have been dying at an unusual rate along the Atlantic Coast since 2016, often from ship strikes or entanglements with fishing gear. Why was the Electoral College Established? As Chief Justice John Marshall observed almost two centuries ago, we must never forget it is a Constitution we are expoundingintended to endure for ages to come, and consequently to be adapted to the various crises of human affairs.. Yet even had Kerry won the electoral vote, President Bush would still have had a big national majority in the popular vote. Get the latest Institute news, new resource notifications, and more through a newsletter subscription. That "sort of" was that slaves were, remarkably offensively, considered three-fifths of a real person as part of the Three-Fifths compromise. Although an elector could, in principle, change his or her vote (and a few actually have over the years), doing so is rare. Why or why not? 3. The Framers' Constitution : Democracy Journal The parties would have the incentive to attract voters throughout the country, which is now a matter of complete indifference to them. Why did the Framers create the Electoral College? The other electors chose someone more compliant to replace him. The Electoral College is made up of 538 electors, with a presidential contender needing to amass 270 electoral votes to win an election. So it seems like a good time to explore what the Electoral College is, the reasons for it, and the Constitutions rules governing it. This is the Electoral College, and its members elect the president and vice president of the United States. If you truly had a popular election, the nation would be one big constituency, and the South would lose the advantage of the 3/5 clause and become a permanent minority. After this Hamilton elector voted, state officials voided his ballot and removed him from office. The Articles of Confederation gave the Continental Congress the power to establish rules and request funding from the s. One Founding-era argument for the Electoral College stemmed from the fact that ordinary Americans across a vast continent would lack sufficient information to choose directly and intelligently. The second as part of the structure of the government that gave extra power to the smaller states. Electoral College - 1. Is the Electoral College a good way During the 1992 election, when he contested against the incumbent, To Eliminate the Potential of a Nationwide Recount, To Make it Easier for Candidates to Campaign, The fact that specific states and their electoral votes are in the basket of one particular candidate or another makes it pretty easier and more affordable for candidates to campaign seamlessly. In the end, the framers of the Constitution decided on a unique, if not confusing, system: the Electoral College. Slaves got an even worse deal, as a slave officially was counted as just three-fifths of a person. Colorado went Democrat in the last presidential election. Stellantis Signing Up EV Charging Companies for Network, Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Statement. In March 2020, a Pew Research Center study found that a majority of U.S. adults (58%) were in favor of amending the Constitution so the presidential candidate who receives the most votes nationwide wins, while 40% preferred to keep the current system in which the candidate who receives the most Electoral College votes declares victory. The Electoral College has racist origins when established, it applied the three-fifths clause, which gave a long-term electoral advantage to slave states in the South and continues to dilute the political power of voters of color. The framers of the constitution created the electoral college because they did not trust the citizens to make sound, objective and unbiased decision in choosing a president so they created the electoral college which is believed to be made up of enlightened individuals who can make objective decisions that will be beneficial to the country and i. We equip students and teachers to live the ideals of a free and just society. In the US presidential elections history, there would have been six elections that have met this threshold, with three of them happening past 1960. Using Disparate Impact to Restore Housing Affordability and Property Rights in Colorado, Amendment 69: What You Need to Know About the "ColoradoCare" Single-Payer Health Care Measure. One example: media portrayal of President Ford as a physically-clumsy oaf. It would take a majority to win. This scenario has played out three times in . Stanford News is a publication of Stanford University Communications. The Framers understood that they were entrusting to future generations the responsibility to draw upon their intelligence, judgment, and experience to give concrete meaning to these broad principles over time. Those were options the Americans had repudiated in 1776. In modern practice, the Electoral College is mostly a formality. Many of them, like George Mason of Virginia, thought that 19 times out of 20, the electors would only work to identify leading candidates, and the House of Representatives, voting by states, would have to make the final choice. The Electoral College vote sees the election of the President and the Vice President for a four-year term. The Founding Fathers established the Electoral College in the Constitution, in part, as a compromise between the election of the President by a vote in Congress and election of the President by a popular vote of qualified citizens. We have now entered a new and even more troubling phase of conservative constitutional jurisprudence. This was the case in the 2016 presidential election where Donald Trump lost the popular vote but went on to win the Electoral College. The framers of the United States Constitution established a compromise in the supreme law when laying the foundation of their new country. Reasons Behind Formation of Electoral College, The framers of the United States Constitution established a compromise in the supreme law when laying the foundation of their new country. We thank you for your support! Why did the framers create the Electoral College? Subscribe now or log in for access. The result is an unprincipled and often patently disingenuous jurisprudence. The most effective way to secure a freer America with more opportunity for all is through engaging, educating, and empowering our youth. Then the candidates would have to think more creatively about how to mobilize a national electorate, rather than pouring money into the televised advertisements that must drive voters in the battleground states completely bonkers. Bush, Bill Clinton only garnered 43% of the majority vote. Trump is why the framers created the Electoral College Published October 16, 2020 Every four years, people head to the polls to vote for the next President of the United States. * In addition to the foregoing, the framers had to weigh whether a candidate should need a majority of the votes to win or only a plurality. The result is confusion and disorientation. However, a selection of mixed-party electors has happened only twice: in Nebraska in 2008 and in Maine in 2016. Trump is why the framers created the Electoral College - MSN The delegates to the 1787 Constitutional Convention had a variety of reasons for settling on the electoral college format, but . The Constitution. One of the critical roles of the Electoral College is that it ensures the best interests of the minority groups are safeguarded in every election. They understood that political majorities may be tempted to enact laws that entrench their own authority; that in times of crisis people may panic and too readily sacrifice both fundamental freedoms and structural limitations; and that prejudice, hostility, and intolerance may at times lead governing majorities to give short shrift to the legitimate needs and interests of political, religious, racial, and other minorities. The number of states that dont have a winner-take-all policy. William P. Marshall isthe William Rand Kenan Jr. How To Fight For Reproductive Rights, Based On How Much Time You Have, Every Single Big & Small Way You Can Fight For Abortion Rights, 29 Years Ago, Courteney Cox Appeared In This Show Months Before 'Friends' Premiered, King Charles III Is Bringing Back A Major Trooping the Colour Tradition, Get Even More From Bustle Sign Up For The Newsletter. Others suggested election by state legislatures. Today, I want to explore why the founders set up the Electoral College. Which do you believe are more persuasive and why? But three of those elected as presidential electors wanted to vote for someone other than Hillary Clinton. Having this compromised approach to electing the President was one way to do that. Once were past the primaries, presidential campaigns are wholly preoccupied with the relatively small number of states that are actually competitive. But their competitiveness is just a demographic accident. One is that it violates the one person, one vote rule, which should be the proper rule of a modern democracy, because the addition of two electors to each state for its senators produces significant distortions in how much our individual vote is worth from state to state. Losers complain the loudest and make most of the media news. By the way, every time a presidential candidate won the majority vote but lost the Electoral College vote, that candidate represented the same political party. Why did the Framers create the Electoral College? These decisions animate the most fundamental aspirations of our Constitution in circumstances in which judicial intervention is both necessary and proper. 1. As Justice Louis Brandeis observed more than 80 years ago, the Framers believed courage to be the secret of liberty. They were not timid men. After the main election, these electors convene and cast their votes to determine who will become the next president. The political party of the winning candidate in each state then sends its preselected electors to the state capital to vote. It was devised by the framers of the United States Constitution to provide a method of election that was feasible, desirable, and consistent with a republican form of government. In addition, there have been five elections where the ultimate president lost the popular vote but went on to win the Electoral College. Is the Electoral College a good way of ensuring each voter is represented equally? Stanford historian Jack Rakove is the author of the Pulitzer Prize winning book, Original Meanings: Politics and Ideas in the Making of the Constitution, in which he argues that originalism, the practice of interpreting the Constitution by a fixed set of the original framers intentions, should not be the only approach to settling todays judicial questions. Required fields are marked *. It incentivizes presidential campaigns to focus on a relatively small number of "swing states.". Today, 538 electors constitute the Electoral College. Two eventually cast ballots for Clinton under court order, while onenow a party to court proceedingsopted for Ohio Governor John Kasich, a Republican. They have very little knowledge of the candidates personal qualities. Those who urge elimination of the Electoral College should be reminded that only once in the last 116 years (before 2016) has the presidential candidate won the majority vote and lost the Electoral College vote. The Electoral College encourages more person-to-person campaigning by candidates, as they spend time in both the big cities and smaller cities in battleground states. The only thing that I would like to see about the Electoral College is to do what the States of Maine and Nebraska break the vote along congressional district lines and not winner take all.