It Is Time to Replace the Electoral College

It Is Time to Replace the Electoral College

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 I believe that the reasons which were legitimate at the time are no longer valid and the time has come for us to replace the Electoral College with a system of electing the president by direct vote.

Why did the framers select the Electoral College as a method of electing the president and not one of the other methods? The framers had concerns that method of selection by legislators would allow a small group of people to select the president, and could lead to the corruption of the process. Alexander Hamilton believed that selection by legislators, “could lead to the president corrupting the legislators to stay in office” and other delegates worried that the “president would be too depended on the legislators and would not excise independent judgment” (Edwards III 80). The framers also believed that an “average citizen of the time would be unable to make an informed decision since new country lacked proper communication and instead they would only support local candidates and this would also give larger states a decided advantage” (Edwards III 81). Another reason had to do with slavery. Delegates who represented the south did not want to use the meth...

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...at we amend the constitution to change from Electoral College to direct vote system. Until the constitutional amendment happens I support the method of National Popular Vote.

Works Cited.

Edwards III, George C. Why Electoral College Is Bad for America. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2004. Print.

Dwyer, Devin, Emily Friedman and Christina NG. “Election 2012: The Campaigns by the Numbers.” abcnews.go.com. “N.p” 6 Nov. 2012. Web. 1 May. 2014.

Center for Responsive Politics. “2012 Presidential Race.” opensecrets.org. “N.p.” 25 Mar 2013 web. 1 May. 2014.

Bycoffe, Aaron. and Andrei Scheinkman. “What The 2012 Election Would Look Like Under The Republicans' Vote-Rigging Plan” huffingtonpost.com. “N.p.” 24 January 2013.Web. 3 May 2014.

Koyzis, David T. “Voter Turnout and Competitive Politics” cpjustice.org. “N.p.” Third Quarter 2000. Web. 3 May 2014.