The Electoral College

Paper Summary:

This paper explains that, by choosing indirectly the president through the Electoral College rather than directly by the voters, the Founding Fathers hedged against popular passion; however, they did not anticipate the emergence of national political parties or a communications network capable of bringing presidential candidates before the entire electorate. The author points out that the Electoral College has been criticized over the years because it is possible that a candidate could win the majority of the popular votes but lose in the Electoral College voting and because of the possibility of "faithless electors" who defect from the candidate to whom they are pledged. The paper concludes that federalism is no longer a sufficient basis for maintaining an out-dated system of voting because technology allows for an informed national electorate and efficient recounts; therefore, direct national election are possible.

From the Paper:

"Now presidential and vice presidential candidates of a particular party run as a team, and in most states, only the names of the candidates rather than the names of the electors appear on the ballot, however, in some states, both the candidates and the electors are identified. The winner in each state is determined by counting the votes for each slate of electors, thus the slate receiving the most votes is declared the winner. A presidential candidate must receive an absolute majority, 270, of the electoral votes cast, and if no candidate receives a majority, then the House of Representatives picks the winner from the top three, with each state delegation in the House casting only one vote, regardless of its size."

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