The Electoral College is undoubtedly the least appreciated element of the U.S. Constitution. Unlike most modern Americans, the authors of the Constitution did not want the public to directly elect the President or even the US Senators.  Previous experiments in direct elections of state officials reinforced their arguments that pure democracy was just too dangerous. The Founders felt that direct elections would lead to ‘cabal faction & violence’ as it had in the elective monarchy of Poland[1], where nobles and foreign governments battled it out to name a new king.  They also feared[2] that a tyrant could manipulate public opinion and come to power.  Too many times in history, populist leaders have manipulated electors for personal gain.  The Founding Fathers were all too familiar with Oliver Cromwell’s rise to power[3] and wanted to install safeguards in the US Constitution to prevent such a usurpation.

The authors of the Constitution didn’t want Congress to elect the President either.  Most felt that allowing Congress to elect the President would undermine the separation of powers and led to the creation of factionist cabals.  They wanted influential or “notable” community leaders that were not in Congress as Electors to use that good judgment to select true leaders rather than someone who would placate popular sentiment. 

This national ‘college’ never actually met.  Article II, Section I of the Constitution provided for each state legislature to designate, by whatever method it chose, a number of electors equal to the size of its congressional delegation (the number of House members plus two for each state’s equal number of senators). Each state’s electors were then to gather and vote for two men, including at least one man who was not from the elector’s home state. Next the electors were to send their certified lists to Congress, where the votes would be compiled and the two top vote getters named president and vice president.  If there were no clear victors, then Congress would make the decision.  The US Constitution made no provision for running mates or political parties.  Individual electors were to exercise their independent judgment of individual candidates.

On paper, the Electoral College served well as a way to steer theoretically between the large and small states and between oligarchy and democracy. What the Framers never discussed was how the thing was supposed to work when true cabals in the form of political parties came into being.  Almost immediately, factionist cabals formed and these parties arguing the represented the people’s choice ensured that candidates who were elected were beholden to their interests.  The safeguards put in place to protect against the excesses of democracy were subverted by the interest of the Federalist and Democratic Republican parties.  This perversion of the electoral process continues today and in 2016, despite a popular election that held Hillary Clinton as winner of the popular vote, the Electoral vote went to Donald Trump (exactly the sort of person the Electoral College was meant to keep from office) then in 2020, that same cabal that elected Mr. Trump attempted to overthrow the Congress when they lost the election.  The firebreaks put in place to prevent the depredations of the mob are beginning to unravel.  The problem is not the Constitution or our convoluted system for elections.  The problem is the institutionalization of political parties and the general acceptance in America of the inevitability of a two-party system rather than a multiparty or no party system.  This will continue until we, the voters, abolish political parties.

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[1] Individual kings were elected (for life) to the Polish throne from the very beginning of the Polish statehood (1572). The “free election” was abolished by the Constitution of 3 May 1791, which established a constitutional-parliamentary monarchy.

[2] These fears were justified in January 2021

[3] Cromwell was a leading advocate of the execution of Charles I and led the coalition that created the Protectorate where he ruled as Lord Protector from 1653 to 1658. Cromwell used his political connections and eventually the army to acquire political power.

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