Why did the Founding fathers create the electoral college?
The Electoral College is a controversial mechanism of presidential elections that was created by the framers of the U.S. Constitution as a compromise for the presidential election process. At the time, some politicians believed a purely popular election was too reckless, while others objected to giving Congress the power to select the president. The compromise was to set up an Electoral College system that allowed voters to vote for electors, who would then cast their votes for candidates, a system described in Article II, section 1 of the Constitution. Flaws: Disproportionate rates of representation. The occasional election of a president who is not the winner of the national popular vote. Supporters of the Electoral College argue that the system contributes to the cohesiveness of the country by requiring a distribution of popular support to be elected president. Without such a mechanism, they point out, presidents would be selected either through the domination of one populous region over the others or through the domination of large metropolitan areas over the rural ones. In the absence of the Electoral College, presidential candidates would focus almost entirely on large states to the exclusion of smaller states, while at present, they focus more on states where the result is less certain, and the disproportionate voting power of the small states ensures that candidates take into account the political values and concerns of small states as well as large. Supporters of the electoral college also argue that by partitioning votes by state, the uncertainty and instability caused by recounts in extremely close races (such as in 2000) are limited in scope to one or two states, rather than causing national recounts. Another argument raised in favor of the electoral college is that the effects of any fraud in the election process, such as the casting of fraudulent ballots, are limited to one state, and so only in unusual circumstances (such as the 1960 presidential election) can fraud potentially effect the outcome
Why did the Founding Fathers create the Electoral College?
It was a compromise. Some of the men drafting the Constitution wanted Congress to select the president, and others favored a popular vote. The EC allowed for a popular vote, but it provided a check on that vote if it was deemed necessary. The EC also gave smaller states a larger say in the outcome of the election. For all of its faults, it prevents the big population centers like New York and L.A. from determining the outcome of every election.
Why did the founding fathers create the electoral college?
A) They did not; it was added to the Constitution after the disputed election of 1796. B) Small states insisted that they have a chance to play a role in choosing the president, and that wouldn’t have been possible with direct elections. C) They knew the Constitution would make them unpopular, so they wanted to create a way to avoid letting voters choose the president, thereby giving themselves a chance to be elected. D) Alexander Hamilton wanted a king, James Madison wanted no president, and the result was this compromise so that there could be a president. E) They did not trust ordinary voters to choose the president and vice president directly.
One irony about the electoral college is that the founding fathers did not want congress to elect the presiden?
C 12th Amendment "The person having the greatest Number of votes for President, shall be the President, if such number be a majority of the whole number of Electors appointed; and if no person have such majority, then from the persons having the highest numbers not exceeding three on the list of those voted for as President, the House of Representatives shall choose immediately, by ballot, the President." http://www.usconstitution.net/xconst_Am1... (Congress includes BOTH the House of Representatives AND Senate. The Senate has no part in electing the President)
Why did the Founding Fathers believe the Electoral College was necessary?
To equalize the differences in the size of the states. Each state has a certain number of representatives. So should the large state have more influence than the small states? The reasons that you list above all all nonsense. # 3 is almost a good reason. We've been talking about this one for our entire history. 1. There has always been a separation of powers in the government, so only one would be allowed to choose another branch of government? 2. This is a country of and by the people, not by the rich and most educated, who got lucky enough to have these resources. 4. Don't know anything about his one. It makes no sense at all.
WHY was the electoral college created?
There are a couple of reasons for the creation of the electoral college: 1. By and large, the people were illiterate and ill-informed. The Founding Fathers, despite their faith in "government by the people", didn't want the ignorant masses determining the fate of the country they worked so hard to create. Thus, they created a "college" of well-educated people to pick the president. In theory, these representatives were supposed to vote according to the wishes of the public, but they could certainly override public opinion. 2. The technology to get an accurate count of the popular vote didn't exist. It was much easier to count votes on a smaller scale and send representatives to do the "real" voting. 3. Under the electoral college, states with small populations, like Wyoming, get a greater say in the outcome of the election than they would if elections were determined based solely on popular vote. Keep in mind that each state is guaranteed a minimum of three votes regardless of population. Back when the electoral college was created, the smaller states wanted it in order to keep the super-big states (primarily NY, PA, and VA) from single-handedly determining the outcome of every election. Reason #3 is also one popular reason to keep the electoral college--giving small states a greater voice.
Why did the Founding Fathers want an electoral college?
I have to write a paper about why the Founding Fathers wanted an electoral college. I was given four bad things that they might have seen and disliked that might have caused them to create an electoral college. These are the four things: river transportation, poor education, gentlemen should not campaign, and the states at odds. Here are the four things in more detail: I. River transportation A. Time B. Expenses C. Location D. Weather E. Danger II. Little education A. Most would be worried about jobs B. Lack of social skills C. Limited decision-making would be made III. Gentlemen should not campaign A. Unqualified B. Lack of candidates C. many candidates would be unknown IV. States at odds A. Open fighting B. Poor communication C. Little trade/currency D. Regional slang E. At risk/poor defense I'm really confused about all of this, and I have no clue what I should do. If you could just help me get started or give me a few ideas, that would be great. Thank you.
I assume you mean “scrapping” since I don’t know what you would scrape it with.Since they are the ones who created it, and they thought it was necessary because they did not believe the public should be trusted with the power to choose the president directly, I would say no.But they also would not support how it currently operates. The founding fathers did NOT expect there to be a popular vote for the presidency at all, and indeed there was not one until around the early 1820s. They left it up to the states to determine how to choose the electors, and by the 1820s most states were using a popular vote.The founders imagined that the electors would be prominent citizens from each state (read: rich, well-educated, and politically connected people) who would act independently to choose the president every four years. The electors today essentially just ratify the results of the popular vote in each state. That’s not how the founders intended for it to work, and they probably would not support it, since the whole point was to have someone OTHER than the people at large choose the President.
It’s very tempting, for Americans, to think that the colonists were all a bunch of good, freedom-loving people while England was filled with nothing but evil monarchists.The truth is somewhat more complex than that. Probably the most powerful man who was ever English king was Henry VIII, but for centuries, England had been moving away from absolute power of kings and toward a government in which an elected Parliament (including the House of Commons) had more power than the king.There were at least two English revolutions — I won’t go into that — which drove that point home, much to the consternation of certain monarchs (such as Charles I) who were thrown from power.The English (after a strange experiment with Oliver Cromwell) decided to keep their king as a symbol of tradition, stability, and continuity. But for the colonists, not having a king at all was a logical move… except for a few people who might have made George Washington king, but Washington himself was not amenable to that.Furthermore, by the time of the Constitution (1787 - 1789), the colonists were used to state governments that had a governor freely elected by the people rather than appointed by King George III. Once you got used to electing your own governor, it made a certain amount of sense to be able to elect your own president as well.The more liberal of the colonists, including Jefferson, Madison, and Thomas Paine, were adamantly opposed to having any amount of political inherited.There still were (and still are!) the natural inequalities of inherited wealth… and the colonists more or less accepted that, as it is accepted today. But a goal of many of the Founding Fathers was to — at least in theory — grant equality under law, and for many that meant equal political power.