Electoral College :: essays research papers

The framers intent of setting up the American Government will never beknow for sure, but it is gathered that they preferred a republic over ademocracy. In the constitutional convention the drafters had to decide how muchpower they would trust with the people of the United States, and how muchshould be controlled by representatives. They chose to devote Congress Make thelaws, and congress would be selected directly by the people. But another tellof government, the executive branch, needed a sole president and the framershad to decide how to accept this president. They chose from three main agreements elect the president by congress, the people, or electors. The electoralcollege system has been in place for over 200 years and Americans are still notsure how it works or if it is the best system. Many Americans feel they go tothe polls every year and vote for the president, and in the long run they are incontrol of the fate of our executive branch.This third system was to have elect ors that could not be a member ofcongress vote for the president. The elector system was voted down twice, onceas the electors to be chosen by read legislatures, and the other time as theelectors to be chosen by direct vote. Finally it was passed under the system ofletting state legislature decide how to choose the electors. Another compromisehad to be made about how many electors each state would have. This wasagreed upon by the electors equaling the total of the states representatives andsenators.States went three main routes in choosing electors the legislative system,where state legislatures choose the electors a district system, where electors areselected by the people of each congressional district and the general ticket, or awinner-take-all system, where a normal vote was held in the entire state, andthe winner alsok all electoral votes. Many have tried to reform by making a more unvaried system state by state, but the constitution is very clear that it is eachstates own d ecision of how to choose electors.The legislative system eventually failed because of too much bargaining,promises, and payoffs. The district system eventually lost popularity because itencourages third parties. This left the general ticket system as the dominatingsystem. However, the framers originally intended electors to be chosen by thepeople and then vote for what they thought was best. There are two states thatstill use the district system, but the remaining 48 states use the general ticketsystem.Most all states no longer show the electors names on the ballot.