preview

The Constitution Of The United States Essay

Decent Essays

In 1787 at the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia, the framers of the Constitution of the United States of America worked together to identify the best way to elect the President (Patterson, 2013). The ideas suggested varied and ranged from selection by members of congress chosen by lottery, to a popular vote of the people. By the end of the Convention the matter had yet to be settled as the framers fore saw that many of the suggestions were prone to corruption, error, and were very chaotic. The issue was passed down to the Committee on Postponed Matters, who in turn created the system that is used today and is commonly known as Electoral College (Kazin, 2011). The Electoral College was outlined by the Committee to up hold the views of the founding fathers, who were the framers of the Constitution.
The Committee on Postponed Matters was created on August 31, 1787, it took four days for them to make a proposal to the Constitutional Convention on the election process (Kazin, 2011). The proposed process included electors known as the Electoral College, each elector would have one electoral vote (Kazin, 2011). States would each have the same number of electoral votes as it had members in Congress (members in the Senate and in the House) (Kazin, 2011). However, the electors were to be selected by way of each states’ choosing as Congress members were prohibited from becoming electors (Patterson, 2013). The states would then hold a public vote for presidency and the

Get Access