The Electoral College by Barbara
Moore
When
examining an important concept whose effects have far-reaching consequences to
our lives, it seems sensible to regard who brought into being, what it actually
is, and why it was established.
It was said
of the men who gave us our unique plan of government, our matchless
constitution, that “we will never have seen, an assembly (of men) more
respectable for the talents, knowledge, lack of self-interest, and patriotism
of those who compose it.” James Madison
said “that there never was an assembly of men, charged with a great and arduous
trust, who were more pure in their motives, or more exclusively… devoted to the
object committed to them.” John Adams
called it “the greatest single effort of national deliberation the world has
ever seen and the greatest exertion of
human understanding.” I would say that those illustrious statesmen were the
most virtuous, brilliant, scholarly, and practical ever gathered together
throughout all of history.
The method
of electing the President of the United States is an indirect process conceived
by the 55 delegates to the 1787 Constitution Convention in Philadelphia and
subsequently authorized by the U.S. Constitution, the Supreme law of the land,
as stated in Article 6 of that document. A number of methods were suggested and
discussed, but few delegates actually favored the president being directly
elected by the people. That idea was not
really on the table. It was understood
that the entire populace would not likely be adequately informed about the
potential candidates. “It was also peculiarly desirable, to afford as little
opportunity as possible to tumult and disorder,” wrote Alexander Hamilton in #
68 of the Federalist Papers. Direct election by the people would also be
unfair, favoring the heavily populated states with large urban centers and
disfavoring the rural agricultural states and smaller states with fewer
people. (And today, the “Heartland of
America and the “Bible Belt” would not have a voice in a popular vote
election.) Indeed, one of the reasons that James Madison opposed the popular
election of the president was that “the people would prefer a citizen of their
own state, thereby subjecting the small states to a disadvantage.”
Recently
there has been a clamoring to do away with the indirect presidential voting
through the Electoral College, particularly by democrats and progressives. Unfortunately
great numbers of people have been wrongly taught that the United States is a
democracy rather than a Constitutional Federal Republic. A democracy allows the voters to directly vote
on every issue. It’s impractical,
cumbersome, and ineffective. The wise
Founding Fathers identified a democracy as a “mob-ocracy”and Constitution
signer John Adams wrote, “Remember, democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders
itself. There never was a democracy yet
that did not commit suicide.” A
democracy is “majority rule” with no objective standards, but based on the
popular feelings of the people at any particular time. The source of the
authority is just the temporary feelings of the voters, which can be quite
easily manipulated. Constitution
architect James Madison wrote, “Democracies have ever been spectacles of
turbulence and contention; have ever been found incompatible with personal
security, or the rights of property; and have, in general, been as short in
their lives as they have been violent in their deaths.”
A
Constitutional Federal Republic requires adherence to the Rule of Law,
protecting the life, liberty, and property of every American individual, with
representation of the states and the people, and that not of the people
directly except in the case of directly voting for district candidates for the
House of Representatives, or “The Peoples’ House”. Every part of our constitutional system was
designed to slow, deliberate, balanced, orderly, complex and structured, based
upon immutable principles of right and wrong, not on the fleeting feelings of a
majority of people at any given time.
In 1787 some
favored the U.S. Congress electing the president but that was dismissed because
of the superb doctrine of Separation of Powers with high walls between the
three branches of government. There was
much discussion about the fear of an aristocracy and a tyranny being created if
the U.S. Senate had the authority to elect the president, and thankfully that
idea was rejected. They were very
concerned about corruption in presidential elections. In the Federalist Paper # 68 Alexander
Hamilton, signer of the Constitution, wrote, “Nothing was more to be desired,
than that every practicable obstacle should be opposed to cabal, intrigue and
corruption. He said, “It was desirable, that the sense of the people should
operate in the choice of the person to whom so important a trust was to be
confided. This end will be answered by
committing the right of making it, not to any pre-established body, but to men
chosen by the people for the special purpose, and at a particular conjuncture.”
What is the
actual plan for electing the President of the United States? Article II, Section I says, “Each State shall
appoint, in such manner as to which the state may be entitled in the Congress,
but no Senator or Representative, or Person Holding an Office of Trust or
Profit under the United States, shall be appointed an Elector…The Electors
shall meet in their respective states and vote…make a list of all the Persons
voted for and number of votes…sign and certify, and transmit sealed…to the
President of the Senate… (who shall) in the presence of the Senate and House of
Representatives, open and count…” Now, if there is no majority, the House of
Representatives elect the President, with each State having one vote. Article II also states that, “The Congress
may determine the Time of choosing the Electors, and the day on which they
shall give their Votes; which Day shall be the same throughout the United
States.” (That day is the Tuesday,
following the 1st Monday in November in even numbered years, every four
years)
The voters
of every state choose the electors which are pledged to a particular political
candidate. With the advent of political parties, their chosen candidates from
the primary elections will have electors on the ballot in the general elections.
When the votes are counted within the
state, the electors of the majority candidate with the popular vote get all the
electoral votes. So the popular vote
counts within each state. It is “Winner Take
All” system. In Alabama we have 7
congressional districts so 7 representatives plus 2 senators gives us 9
electoral votes. When the less populated
states in the “Heartland of America” along with the “Bible Belt” vote the same
way there are a good number of electoral votes although not as many as the heavily
urban states. Any presidential candidate
would have to also win a “battleground” state with lots of electoral
votes. But it has been done, as in the
Bush victory with the Florida votes.
Alexander
Hamilton concluded that, “If the manner be not perfect, it is at least
excellent.”
Thursday,
September 6, 1787
“A visible
sigh of relief swept over the delegates today when 10 of the 11 States approved
a modified plan for electing a President, thus ending one of the most
hard-fought, frustrating, and fatiguing decisions of this Convention…today’s
actions create a three-tiered government, rendering the President independent
of Congress…One observer points out that an American President chosen by an
Electoral College system has only two foreign historical precedents: the Sacred
College of Cardinals of the Vatican and the Holy Roman Empire. The Maryland State Senate is the immediate
domestic model for the delegates.”
Sources Used
Constitutional Journal by Jeffrey St.
John
Miracle at Philadelphia by Catherine
Drinker Bowen
Original Intent by David Barton
The Federalist Papers by Alexander
Hamilton, James Madison, John Jay
1787 The Grand Convention by Clinton
Rossiter
United States Constitution
