why did the framers create the electoral college?american airlines check in customer service

The result is confusion and disorientation. Q: Is the development of offshore wind energy farms in the U.S. killing whales? So, then if both the Democrats and Republicans had been adversely affected, I thought we might have a situation where the two parties would be willing to recognize the flaws in the Electoral College and think seriously about jointly supporting a national popular vote. Nonpartisan forever. Dr. Steve Wyre Two things are known for certain following the 2020 presidential election. This answer has two elements. Pew addresses the challenges of a changing world by illuminating issues, creating common ground, and advancing ambitious projects that lead to tangible progress. In other ways, however, it is more of a concern than it was in 1787. This, too, is an essential tenet of principled constitutionalism. Sept. 17 is Constitution Day and Citizenship Day, a day on which we commemorate the signing of the Constitution in 1787 and also recognize all who have become citizens. The most obvious alternative was to have the president elected by Congress. 68 he recognized the sense of the people should operate in the choice, and would do so through the election of electors to the Electoral College. 1. It is best characterized as conservative activism. Justices who readily dismiss constitutional claims by women, political dissenters, and racial, ethnic, and religious minorities, but at the same time aggressively strike down affirmative action programs, restrictions on corporate political expenditures, regulations of commercial advertising, federal civil rights laws prohibiting age discrimination and domestic violence, and the laws of the state of Florida in the 2000 presidential election, are unmistakably using the power of judicial review in a highly selective and politicized manner that cannot credibly be justified by any principled theory of constitutional interpretation. In modern practice, the Electoral College is mostly a formality. But the Electoral college served another, more sinister purpose: to help preserve slavery. Why or why not? As best you can, explain how the Electoral College determines which candidate wins the presidency. Trump is why the framers created the Electoral College Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness. Why did the Framers create the Electoral College? As best you can But executives wouldnt say for certain if, Check out the latest issue of The Business Journal. Senators were initially to be appointed by state legislatures, and states were permitted to ban women from voting entirely. There is no evidence for the claims advanced by originalists, for example, that the original meaning of the Equal Protection Clause prohibited affirmative action or that the original meaning of the First Amendment included the notion that corporations (which were both strongly regulated and highly distrusted at the time) had a constitutional right to spend unlimited capital to influence political elections. The political party of the winning candidate in each state then sends its preselected electors to the state capital to vote. We'll send periodic reminders of what's new and what's coming. First, because those who enacted the broad foundational provisions of our Constitution often did not have any precise and agreed-upon understanding of the specific meaning of freedom of speech or due process of law or regulate Commerceamong the several States or privileges or immunities or equal protection of the laws, it is exceedingly difficult to know with any certainty what they did or did not think about concrete constitutional issues. The Founding Fathers established the Electoral College in the Constitution, in part, as a compromise between the election of the President by a vote in Congress and election of the President by a popular vote of qualified citizens. Although the leading candidates in the 2016 presidential election overlooked the states where they believed there was no chance of success, the results demonstrated that every state is flippable given an opportunity. Why did they believe republican forms of government were superior? It can be done by legislation in each state. This problem would disappear if we had a truly national election with one electorate and votes counting the same wherever they were cast. Join the BRI Network! Why did the framers of the Constitution create the Electoral College? Bush, Bill Clinton only garnered 43% of the majority vote. So, why did our framers create the Electoral College? Then the candidates would have to think more creatively about how to mobilize a national electorate, rather than pouring money into the televised advertisements that must drive voters in the battleground states completely bonkers. Most voters would favor candidates from their own states, and it would become truly difficult to produce a popular majority with a field of favorite sons. Every state receives an allocation of electors equivalent to the number of representatives in both houses. The Framers' Constitution : Democracy Journal The Court added another element to this understanding in Skinner v. Oklahoma (1942), in which the Court invalidated a law authorizing compelled sterilization. The President of the United States is not chosen through a national popular vote because the framers of the Constitution adopted the Electoral College, which gives each state as many votes as it has members of Congress. Flipbooks are available to paid subscribers only. Even then, the framers . Each state elects the number of representatives to the Electoral College that is equal to its number of Senatorstwo from each stateplus its number of delegates in the House of Representatives. Using Disparate Impact to Restore Housing Affordability and Property Rights in Colorado, Amendment 69: What You Need to Know About the "ColoradoCare" Single-Payer Health Care Measure. Is the U.S. political system more democratic or republican in nature in the present day? The number of states that dont have a winner-take-all policy. Why Did the Founding Fathers Create the Electoral College? - Edge As I write this on Thursday, November 5, the presidential election is still uncalled. It provides every community an opportunity to determine the right course of action for the country during the electioneering period. Yet even had Kerry won the electoral vote, President Bush would still have had a big national majority in the popular vote. However, these proposals could make the president beholden to state officials. One of the main problems is that presidential candidates dont have to win the popular vote in order to win the electoral vote and therefore the presidency. The principles enshrined in the Constitution do not change over time. The reason that the Constitution calls for this extra layer, rather than just providing for the direct election of the president, is that most of the nations founders were actually rather afraid of democracy. Others suggested election by state legislatures. Electors generally vote according to their states popular vote. 10. The Federalist Papers [1787]. As CGP Grey pointed out in his video The Trouble With The Electoral College, the fastest way to send information was to write it down on a piece of paper, hand it to a guy on a horse, wish him godspeed good sir, and hope he didnt get killed by Indians or die of dysentery along the way. With the young United States being so large, time was needed to transmit the election results from the farthest flung parts of the country to the capital. To win the presidency, you must get a simple majority of votes from the electors. Both of these claims, however, are central to todays conservative legal agenda. 1 person found it helpful taskmasters The framers of our Constitution created the electoral college rather than have direct popular elections for President for the reason that the framer of the Constitution didn't trust direct democracy. The Associated Press September 14, 2020 WASHINGTON (AP) WHY IS IT THAT ONE CANDIDATE CAN WIN THE POPULAR VOTE BUT ANOTHER WINS THE ELECTORAL VOTE AND THUS THE PRESIDENCY? * To ensure independence from Congress, advocates of congressional election suggested choosing the president for only a single term of six or seven years. The District of Columbia is also allocated three electors. In reality, individuals vote for an elector who has pledged to vote for a particular candidate. What Is the Electoral College? | The Pew Charitable Trusts That's how the framers of the Constitution set it up. By subscribing to this BDG newsletter, you agree to our. The Framers understood that they were entrusting to future generations the responsibility to draw upon their intelligence, judgment, and experience to give concrete meaning to these broad principles over time. My big hope in 2004 was that John Kerry would have carried Ohio, where a swing of 80,000 votes or so would have done the trick, and with it the election. Indeed, the notion that any particular moments understanding of the Constitutions provisions should be locked into place and taken as constitutionally definitive would have seemed completely wrong-headed to the Framers, who held a much bolder and more confident conception of their own achievements and aspirations. Marshalls interpretative understanding reflects an approach that is true to what we might call The Framers Constitution. It recognizes that the Constitution sets forth broad principles and that the central challenge of constitutional interpretation is to define and then give life and substance to those principles in an ever-changing society. There, they cast a ballot for president and a second for vice president. Not at all Slightly This was the case in the 2016 presidential election where Donald Trump lost the popular vote but went on to win the Electoral College. First, the framers were experimental politicians, and they were open to the evidence of how things were operating. The delegates wrestled with issues such as these over a period of months. Neither the Constitution nor federal law requires the electoral vote to mimic the popular vote. isthe Edward H. Levi Distinguished Service Professor of Law at the University of Chicago. This way, even if large states could control the house, smaller states would have more of a voice in the Senate. Accessed at The Library of Congress Web site. The other is that nearly every state - depending on its political leadership - has pushed to make voting either easier or harder for its citizens. As the 2000 election reminded us, the Electoral College does make it possible for a candidate to win the popular vote and still not become president. Appraising the Electoral College - Bill of Rights Institute Many of them, like George Mason of Virginia, thought that 19 times out of 20, the electors would only work to identify leading candidates, and the House of Representatives, voting by states, would have to make the final choice. Do you think the Electoral College has functioned the way it was intended? Video: Do you Understand the Electoral College? It is time for a new era of principled constitutionalism. What is wrong with the electoral college? Without the Electoral College a nation could sacrifice to its ruling passion or interest both the public good and the rights of other citizens so stated the French philosopher Alexis de Tocqueville, who toured the United States studying and commenting on our unique form of government shortly after its founding. The number of elections since 1900 when at least one elector voted for someone other than the candidate he or she promised to support. PDF The Electoral College and the Framers' Distrust of Democracy James P Electoral College Maps Since 1789, 270 To Win The Constitution. In the Courts famous footnote four in Carolene Products (1938), for example, the Court suggested that there are some circumstances in which there may be narrower scope for the usual presumption of constitutionality. Specifically, the Court noted that more exacting judicial scrutiny may be appropriate when legislation restricts those political processes which can ordinarily be expected to bring about repeal of undesirable legislation and when laws disadvantage groups like religious or racial minorities, because prejudice against such groups tends seriously to curtail the operation of those political processes ordinarily to be relied upon to protect them. In fact, Ford had been an all star athlete who remained physically active and graceful well into old age. Accessed at the University of Virginia Department of American Studies Web site. Abiding by the Electoral College allows for the use of elector voters as should be the case rather than depending on tallying individual votes. What is the Electoral College? Dont miss our latest facts, findings, and survey results in The Rundown. When proponents of the original Constitution argued in 1789 that a bill of rights would be pointless because political majorities would run roughshod over its guarantees, Thomas Jefferson responded that this argument ignored the legal check that could be exercised by the judiciary. So if a candidate wins a state by even a narrow margin, he or she wins all of the states electoral votes. When Americans cast their votes for president, they are in reality directing other people called electors to vote for the candidate who receives the most votes in their state. In this way, ordinary people feel like the government supports them in earnest ways. The persons having the greatest number of votes shall be the president and vice president respectively. The Framers intended courts to play a central role in addressing these concerns. Electoral College History How did we get the Electoral College? A compromise between popular vote and Congressional vote. Why do we still let the Electoral College pick our president? Today, 538 electors constitute the Electoral College. Alexander Hamilton viewed the electoral system as superior to direct popular election. Slaves got an even worse deal, as a slave officially was counted as just three-fifths of a person. Maine and Nebraska allow electors to be split between parties, proportionally to how their candidates won in different parts of the state. It defines our most fundamental freedoms in general terms: freedom of speech, due process of law, free exercise of religion, equal protection of the laws, cruel and unusual punishment. The Constitution sets forth governmental powers in similarly general terms: Congress may regulate commerce among the several states, the president will take care that the laws be faithfully executed, the courts are authorized to decide cases and controversies., These phrases are not self-defining. 3. Do you believe that this possibility must be resolved, or is the system working as intended? Another thorny issue is that electors do not have to vote for the candidate that the majority of the people in their state has voted for. One is that former president Donald Trump lost in the most secure election in history. Without the Electoral College, rural areas would be completely ignored so would most of middle America. Click the card to flip "The Electoral College was created by the framers of the U.S. Constitution as an alternative to electing the president by popular vote or by Congress." electoral college device, however, was created as a compromise to deal with population differences, not because most of the Framers were convinced that the people would be swayed by a demagogue and cast their votes for a person of poor character. In this eLesson, learn more about how the Electoral College functions and why the Framers thought it was a good idea. In the 1960s, they condemned what they derided as judicial activism and demanded the appointment of judges committed to a more capacious form of judicial restraint. But an Electoral College allows states to count slaves and that's what gave the South the inside track in presidential elections.. Why did the framers create an Electoral College? - Wise-Answer In every state but Maine and Nebraska, the candidate who wins the most votes (that is, a plurality) in the state receives all of the states electoral votes. However, a selection of mixed-party electors has happened only twice: in Nebraska in 2008 and in Maine in 2016. The guarantee of equal protection of the laws in the Fourteenth Amendment was understood in later decades as prohibiting discrimination against not only African Americans but women and gays and lesbians as well. In the minds of the framers, this would ensure that the diverse needs of states and citizens would be heard. why did the framers of our constitution created the electoral college This happened in 1824, 1876, 1888, 2000, and 2016. Electoral College: A System Born of Compromise At the time of the Philadelphia convention, no other country in the world directly elected its chief executive, so the delegates were wading into. This article will discuss the key reasons behind the formation of the Electoral College. It was chaired byDavid Brearly,then serving as Chief Justice of the New Jersey Supreme Court. A: Whales have been dying at an unusual rate along the Atlantic Coast since 2016, often from ship strikes or entanglements with fishing gear. * In addition to the foregoing, the framers had to weigh whether a candidate should need a majority of the votes to win or only a plurality. Small states still had a say in who their next president was, but large states containing more people would still receive more electoral votes. Like many other aspects of our Constitution, the Electoral College was a compromise. Five myths about the electoral college - The Washington Post Even though it restrains the popular vote majority from having ultimate control over the results of an election, the candidate declared the winner must gather a minimum of 270 electoral votes to win the White House race. Why does the United States have an Electoral College when it would be so easy to directly elect a president, as we do for all the other political offices? Actually, I do think that, for two reasons. This process impedes the other arms of the government from deciding who to be elected as the next president. Of course, the dynamics of the American populous have changed drastically in the last 230 years. The Electoral College provided a compromise option that restrained the election of a president by nationwide vote or appointment by Congress. For these reasons, the conservative doctrine of originalism has been largely discredited as a serious method of constitutional interpretation. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); 2022 US Constitution All rights reserved. Video: The Trouble with the Electoral College, CGP Gray (Anti-EC) Should the state legislatures choose the executive? The Bill of Rights Institute teaches civics. There were 230 years ago. Forty-eight states and the District of Columbia have a winner-take-all policy that the Electoral College must follow. Instead of producing clear winners as the Framers hoped, the Electoral College has proved to be . There are a handful of reasons why the framers opted for the Electoral College, from the purely logistical to the highly. Most electors are loyal members of the party that has selected them, and in 26 states, plus Washington, D.C., electors are bound by laws or party pledges to vote in accord with the popular vote. The framers of the Constitution established the Electoral College in the Constitution to forge a compromise between those who wanted the president to be elected by members of Congress and those who wanted a president elected by a popular vote. Right now, the American people are hearing two loud noises at the same time. In every state but Maine and Nebraska, electors are awarded on a winner-take-all basis. And the most effective way to achieve that is through investing in The Bill of Rights Institute. Here are some of the factors the framers had to consider: * Most people never meet any candidates for president. But that is less a product of the Electoral College and more a product of the way states apportion electors. Once were past the primaries, presidential campaigns are wholly preoccupied with the relatively small number of states that are actually competitive. That means that a candidate who wins, say, 51% of the states popular vote is awarded 100% of the states electors. You can be a part of this exciting work by making a donation to The Bill of Rights Institute today! When James Madison faced similar concerns when he introduced the Bill of Rights in the first Congress, he maintained that independent tribunals of justice will consider themselvesthe guardians of those rights [and]will be naturally led to resist every encroachment upon them. The prospect of winning by plurality would encourage extreme candidates to run with enthusiastic, but relatively narrow, bases of support. Video: Do you Understand the Electoral College? PragerU (Pro-EC) As Alexander Hamilton stated:Talent for low intrigue, and the little arts of popularity, may alone suffice to alleviate a man to the first honors of a single state; but it will require other talents, and a different kind of merit, to establish him in the esteem and confidence of the whole union, or of so considerable a portion of it as would be necessary to make him a successful candidate for the distinguished office of President of the United States.. Which do you believe are more persuasive and why? During the 1992 election, when he contested against the incumbent George H.W. Experience quickly demonstrated, in other words, that a popular vote would work, and the strange contrivance of appointing electors by rules that could shift from state to state and election to election was now superfluous. Why did the Founding Fathers choose the electoral college for electing Unless the Electoral College were very large, however, this would require electoral districts that combined states and/or cut across state lines. Stanford historian Jack Rakove is the author of the Pulitzer Prize winning book, Original Meanings: Politics and Ideas in the Making of the Constitution, in which he argues that originalism, the practice of interpreting the Constitution by a fixed set of the original framers intentions, should not be the only approach to settling todays judicial questions. So, why did our framers create the Electoral College? Electoral College History | National Archives All rights reserved. That is central to any theory of principled constitutionalism. We thank you for your support! During the 1992 election, when he contested against the incumbent, To Eliminate the Potential of a Nationwide Recount, To Make it Easier for Candidates to Campaign, The fact that specific states and their electoral votes are in the basket of one particular candidate or another makes it pretty easier and more affordable for candidates to campaign seamlessly. Democracy in America, vol. A: The framers of the Constitution didnt trust direct democracy. Without the Electoral College, only a few highly populated states, especially those on either coast and a few others in between could effectively elect the president of the United States. The 14th Amendment abolished the three-fifths rule and granted (male) former slaves the right to vote. Hamilton, Alexander. The electors then name in their ballots the person voted for as president, and in distinct ballots the person voted for as vice president.

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