The founding fathers developed the concept of the Electoral College in order to reduce voter fraud, discourage the development of third parties, and provide a clearer view of the winner in tight national races.
Not exactly...
"A popular election in this case is radically vicious. The ignorance of the people would put it in the power of some one set of men dispersed through the Union, and acting in concert, to delude them into any appointment." -- Delegate Gerry, July 25, 1787
"The extent of the country renders it impossible, that the people can have the requisite capacity to judge of the respective pretensions of the candidates." -- Delegate Mason, July 17, 1787
"The people are uninformed, and would be misled by a few designing men." -- Delegate Gerry, July 19, 1787.
The Founding Fathers had seen the dangers of placing ultimate power into a single set of human hands. Accordingly, they feared that placing unlimited power to elect the president into the politically naive hands of the people could lead to a "tyranny of the majority." In response, they created the Electoral College system as a process to insulate the selection of the president from the whims of the public.
usgovinfo.about.com
They, in their wisdom, recognized you'd have an aggregation of extremist liberal Democrats <g> in NY, Chicago, California, and MASS... |
