Debating Voting Issues, Representativeness, and Reforms
Background Info. on the Electoral College
The Founders were deeply concerned about whether the masses had the
wisdom to select their representatives directly. They feared that the
people would fall prey to unscrupulous individuals who knew how to sway
votes to their own advantage. As a result, the Founders decided that
both the president and senators should be elected indirectly, by representatives
of the people rather than by the people themselves. Only members of
the House of Representatives would be directly elected by voters.
Each state legislature elected two senators to Congress until 1913,
when the Seventeenth Amendment was ratified; it allowed for direct election
of senators, as with the House. An Electoral College was created to
elect the president. Candidates would have to win a majority of Electoral
College votes in order to become president. State legislatures elected
the electors. The Electoral College still exists. Each state plus the
District of Columbia is allocated a number of electors equal
to the size of its total congressional delegation (House delegation
plus two).
Criticisms of the Electoral College began early on, after the political
parties began to emerge. State legislatures began to be organized by
the parties, and the selection of electors became strongly influenced
by the political party system. If a party dominated a state legislature,
that party dominated the state's electors.
By the twentieth century, pressures mounted for reform, leading to
a more democratic process. By the second half of the century, most states
had to give all their electors to whoever won the popular vote in their
state, no matter how many candidates were on the ticket or how the votes
split. Today, a presidential candidate can win the popular vote overall
but lose the electoral vote. Criticisms of the 2000 presidential contest
show that views on whether and how we elect the president are varied
and hotly debated to this day.
For more info., see:
Student Central | Students in
Action | Debating
Voting Issues, Representativeness, and Reforms
Whose Voice Is Heard? | Do Our Judges "Represent" the People?
*How Should U.S. Elections Be Managed?*
|
