United States Presidential Election Analysis

At the Constitutional Convention of 1787, the Founding Fathers could not decide if the president should be elected by Congress or elected by a popular vote, so they decided to create the Electoral College (“US Electoral College”). The Founding Fathers did not trust the people to vote on the right presidential candidate, so they decided that an indirect election was the best method (Becker). The Electoral College is a group of individuals who elect the president and vice president in the United States of America (TED-Ed). The number of electors that are given to each state is stated in Article II,

The history of the Electoral college goes back to 1804 to the framers of the constitution. Many of the nations founding fathers actually did not trust direct democracy and wanted to create a system that had balance between power of the people and power of the government. As James Madison described , he was worried about “ factions” in democracy. “These groups of citizens with a common interest in a proposal that would violate the right of citizens or the nation as a whole” (Joe Miller), Madison's fear which Alexis de Tocqueville later named as the “tyranny of majority”, was that these factions could become the fifty percent and win the majority. Subsequently delegates proposed a variety of different methods to elect the president in order for this to not occur. According to Joe Miller’s article the delegates voted more than 60 times before they finally chose a

In 1787, the framers of the constitution assembled and decided how the new nation would elect its president. It took the framers little less than a month to accomplish this task. During that month they considered various methods ranging from direct election of the president, to selection by legislators, to selection by electors. Finally, they settled on selection by electors, most commonly known as Electoral College. There were various reasons why Electoral College ultimately won out. We will explore some of the reason later in this essay. I believe that the reasons which were legitimate at the time are no longer valid and the time has come for us to replace the Electoral College with a system

When the constitution was being created, the forefathers thought the people might choose a president who was unfit for the job. Back then, there wasn't television to broadcast their commercials or the presidential debates, and their wasn't internet for the candidates to present their ideas on. The only way to know who you should vote for was the newspapers and word of mouth - which can easily be made up or misunderstood. So they created the Electoral College as a way to keep an unsuited president from taking office. So basically, “when Americans vote for a President and Vice President, they are actually voting for presidential electors.” (http://www.history.com/topics/electoral-college)

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.

Two hundred years ago, the Framers of the Constitution outlined the Electoral College when they disagreed on who should elect the president, and disagreed on the role of the people, the congress, and the states in the political process. Some favored the direct vote while others lacked confidence in the people to vote. The compromise became what is now the Electoral College. In the two hundred year history of the Electoral

It is crucial to understand that when the electoral college was first developed it was different time, lacking certain thing that we currently possess today. In the specific era of time, it may have been the best option, but times change and technology advances, leaving no area of need for the electoral college current day. The electoral college was first devised during the Constitutional Congress of 1787, almost 230 years ago (Jefferson- Jenkins). In a new country, weary of any national government power and states possessive over their own rights and powers, it seemed to be the most suited option for the new country. It’s goal was to reunite feuding states and ease the mind of less populous states with the addition of senatorial electors. Overtime and even more so today, the power of the of national government has greatly expanded,consequently removing the need to accommodate the suspicions of the people.

Clearly, choosing a president without political parties or national campaigns and without affecting the careful balance between the federal and state powers was challenging. Several alternative election methods were considered before the convention decided on the Electoral College method. First, the convention considered having the Congress choose the president. They rejected this idea after some believed that this process would lead to division and hard feelings in the Congress. Others thought that it might lead to political bargaining and corruption and that it could upset the balance of power between the executive and legislative branches of the government (Kimberling, 2008). As an alternative, they considered having the state legislatures select the president. Again, this possibility was rejected because they feared that having a president so obligated to the state legislatures might permit the erosion of federal authority and the undermining of the concept of federalism (Kimberling, 2008). Also considered as a possibility was the idea of electing the president by a direct popular vote. This was rejected not because the Framers were reluctant to give the power to elect the president directly to the people because of their fear of the “uneducated masses”. Some felt that citizens might vote purely in light of their local interests rather than in consideration of what was best for the nation as a whole. They also

At the time of the development of the electoral college, the Framers were wary to give the people all of the power to elect the president. They wanted to find a happy medium where the people still had a voice, but they weren't in total control of who became president. They bounced around several ideas before they made a decision. Some of these ideas included: having a direct popular vote with the majority winning,

The electoral college was established by Article II, Section 1, Clause 2 of the Constitution (“The Electoral College”). The Founding Fathers craved the democratic values they were forbidden under King George II; however, they feared unrestrained democracy that had ruined great nations (Stepman). Therefore, they created a process that elected the president through both a Congressional vote and a national vote. The system consists of three main processes. First, the parties choose their electors. The

The electoral college system is a system that constantly misunderstood. Especially after this most recent election. So understanding and explaining the history of the system itself and why the system was created in the first place. The founding fathers established the electoral college in 1787 after National leaders drafted the U.S. Constitution.(Bonsor & Dove,2000). Instead of setting up a presidential election system through direct democracy, the nation's founders established the Electoral College in part to ensure the entire nation has a more equal say in the choosing of a national president. The purpose of the electoral college is to be a compromise between election of the president by the vote of Congress

The Fathers had established a solution between the debate of a election of the President by popular vote of citizens and the election of the President by a vote in Congress and; in the Constitution. The Electoral College includes of 538 electors. In order to win you need to have at least 270 votes. The people of each state vote for their candidate, and the electors vote on the candidate and give all the votes to the candidate who won the popular vote. In my opinion the Electoral College process is not an efficient way, and it needs to be revised. Technology has changed and every vote can be counted buy computers, since Founding Fathers tried to make it easier for them to count the votes, since they traveled by horse. Since candidates only focus on winning over states that have the most electors. The Electoral College doesn't go with the will of the people.

The founding fathers established the Electoral College in the constitution as a compromise in the election of the president by voting in congress and electing the president by popular vote of citizens who are qualified. Existing for a long time by Article Two of the United States Constitution in the result of United States presidential election system to hand-pick the President of the United States and Vice President of the United States. The people of the United States get to vote in each state at a widespread election to choose a list of electors pledged to vote for a party’s candidate. Each states is entitled to their assigned number of electors which equal the number of members in its congressional delegation. This is, for each house of

Two hundred and twenty-nine years ago, our founding fathers had debated on which route to take when electing our President. In 1787, the “Committee of Eleven” had come to a compromise, and created the Electoral College, which is a group of individuals elected by the people to cast votes for the presidency. The Electoral College is described as “a compromise between election of the president by Congress and election by popular vote” (Price). The reason behind the Electoral College was to preserve “the sense of the people,” while ensuring that our president is chosen “by men most capable of analyzing the qualities adapted to the station, and acting under

"The method of choosing the president proved to be But one of many vexing problems for the fifty-five men who assembled in Philadelphia in May 1887" (Euchner, and Maltese 2). Our forefathers were faced with many hard decisions that would have repercussions for the next two centuries. One of the most perplexing problems facing them was the question of how to elect a president. They had to choose from three main systems: elect the president by congress, the people, or electors. There was much debate over this topic in the constitutional convention until eventually the Electoral College system was chosen to elect our president. The Electoral College system has been in place for over 200 years and most Americans are still not sure how it