The Electoral College was created for a number of reasons. One reason is because there was a fear of factions in the United States. The electoral college would prevent the largest faction or group from being able to rule unfairly. The Electoral College also protects those with money and power, which tend to be the fewer. In short, a main reason it was created was the fact that our forefathers feared the large masses of poor and for the security of private property. The Electoral College allows the federals and the states to run the elections. This is an example of indirect democracy, which protects the elite from the poor. I believe that this system was fair for the time period (1787) it was designed for because then, most of the elite and powerful were those who were the most educated. It is clear that times have changed and for the time period we are in now, I think it is a bit unfair. People today realize that brilliance can come from anywhere and a great amount of money is not necessarily needed to become well educated. The Electoral College has failed on numerous occasions, one of them being in 1800. The Democratic-Republican electors gave both Thomas JEfferson and Aaron Burr an equal number of Electoral votes. Because it was a tie, it had to be settled in the House of Representatives, which eventually came in Jefferson's favor. Because of this failure in the system, the twelfth amendment was made to prevent a tie from ever happening again.
I didnt think of using my notes for this, you are a genius. & you make a lot of good points, i didnt think of there ever being a tie in the electoin.
ReplyDeleteGood job Emmie! You did a great job explaining what the electoral college is and why it was created!
ReplyDeleteYou do a good job of interpreting the importance of the electoral college. You make a number of good points and your essay has good balance.
ReplyDeleteThe closing lines about the election and why the 12th amendment was put in place was informative.
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