Why did the founders create the Electoral College?
About this video
The video explains that the Electoral College came out of a deadlock at the Constitutional Convention. Delegates kept favoring election of the president by Congress, then rejecting it because it threatened separation of powers. A committee working while the delegates were on break proposed the Electoral College, a replica of Congress that protected the executive's independence and finessed questions about slavery, though nobody thought it was the best idea.
You'll be able to
- explain why delegates kept rejecting election of the president by Congress.
- describe how the Electoral College is a replica of Congress.
- explain why the framers accepted a system they didn't think was ideal.
Key words
- Deadlock
- A situation where people can't agree and no decision is reached.
- Separation of powers
- Dividing government into branches so each can check the others.
- Elector
- A person who casts a vote for president; each state has as many as its House members plus senators.
- Bicameral legislature
- A lawmaking body with two chambers, like the House and the Senate.
- Amend
- To formally change the Constitution.
Transcript
The Electoral College came about as an accident in a deadlock, the Constitutional Convention. The framers really struggled with this. They weren't sure how do you choose the chief executive in a republic? They didn't have models. The thought model in people's minds when they came to Philadelphia, was that Congress would elect the president. Several times in the course of the summer of 1787 they had stroke looks and that was the proposition that had the most support. But then, you always wanted these things where we vote, there would be some support for that. Then a couple of hours later they say, that's really a bad idea because then the president is independent of the Congress and is reliant on it and we need separation of powers. They'd say, let's talk about it again in a couple of weeks. It kept coming up in the course of the summer. They couldn't agree.
Finally, they did what any good convention trying to deal with something like this did at the end of the summer. They were under pressure to finish their work. At the end of the summer, they went on vacation and appointed a committee to deal with this while they were away. George Washington went fishing. The committee came up with this institution that we call the Electoral College. The Electoral College, if you think about it, is a replica of Congress in the sense that each state has electoral votes or electors equivalent to its members in the House of Representatives and the Senate. It's a replica of Congress that was supposed to deliberate in each state. The replica of Congress, but which serves no other function. That the idea that it would jeopardize the independence of the executive branch was addressed.
By doing it in this way, it also finessed questions about slavery. For example, because of the compromises that have been hammered out with respect to the representation in a bicameral legislature, then we're important to presidential elections. Nobody really thought this was the best idea to be honest with you. There was discussion on why, it's not the greatest thing, but we can amend the constitution.
We can change it. Let's give it a try.
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