Editing United States Electoral College (section)

== Background ==
{{Primary sources|section|date=February 2024}}
The Electoral College was officially selected as the means of electing president towards the end of the Constitutional Convention, due to pressure from slave states wanting to increase their voting power, since they could count slaves as 3/5 of a person when allocating electors, and by small states who increased their power given the minimum of three electors per state.<ref name=":3">{{Cite book |last1=Levitsky |first1=Steven |title=Tyranny of the Minority: why American democracy reached the breaking point |last2=Ziblatt |first2=Daniel |date=2023 |publisher=Crown |isbn=978-0-593-44307-1 |edition= |location=New York |chapter=Chapter 5}}</ref> The compromise was reached after other proposals, including a [[direct election]] for president (as proposed by Hamilton among others), failed to get traction among slave states.<ref name=":3" /> [[Steven Levitsky]] and [[Daniel Ziblatt]] describe it as "not a product of constitutional theory or farsighted design. Rather, it was adopted by default, after all other alternatives had been rejected."<ref name=":3" />

In 1787, the [[Constitutional Convention (United States)|Constitutional Convention]] used the [[Virginia Plan]] as the basis for discussions, as the Virginia proposal was the first. The Virginia Plan called for Congress to elect the president.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://avalon.law.yale.edu/18th_century/debates_529.asp|title=Debates in the Federal Convention of 1787: May 29|publisher=Avalon Project|access-date=April 13, 2011}}</ref><ref>[https://www.senate.gov/civics/common/generic/Virginia_Plan_item.htm Senate.gov].</ref> Delegates from a majority of states agreed to this mode of election. After being debated, delegates came to oppose nomination by Congress for the reason that it could violate the separation of powers. [[James Wilson (Founding Father)|James Wilson]] then made a motion for electors for the purpose of choosing the president.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://avalon.law.yale.edu/18th_century/debates_602.asp|title=Debates in the Federal Convention of 1787: June 2|publisher=Avalon Project|access-date=April 13, 2011}}</ref><ref>[https://constitutioncenter.org/blog/james-wilson-popular-sovereignty-and-the-electoral-college Matt Riffe, "James Wilson," Constitution Center]></ref>

Later in the convention, a committee formed to work out various details. They included the mode of election of the president, including final recommendations for the electors, a group of people apportioned among the states in the same numbers as their representatives in Congress (the formula for which had been resolved in lengthy debates resulting in the [[Connecticut Compromise]] and [[Three-Fifths Compromise]]), but chosen by each state "in such manner as its Legislature may direct". Committee member [[Gouverneur Morris]] explained the reasons for the change. Among others, there were fears of "intrigue" if the president were chosen by a small group of men who met together regularly, as well as concerns for the independence of the president if he were elected by Congress.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://avalon.law.yale.edu/18th_century/debates_904.asp|title=Debates in the Federal Convention of 1787: September 4|publisher=Avalon Project|access-date=April 13, 2011}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zXMdcTVStnsC&pg=PA216|title=The Making of the Presidential Candidates 2008|first=William G.|last=Mayer|date=November 15, 2008|publisher=Rowman & Littlefield|isbn=978-0-7425-4719-3 |via=Google Books}}</ref>

Once the Electoral College had been decided on, several delegates (Mason, Butler, Morris, Wilson, and Madison) openly recognized its ability to protect the election process from cabal, corruption, intrigue, and faction. Some delegates, including James Wilson and James Madison, preferred popular election of the executive.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://constitutioncenter.org/blog/james-wilson-popular-sovereignty-and-the-electoral-college|title=James Wilson, popular sovereignty, and the Electoral College|publisher=National Constitution Center|access-date=April 9, 2019|date=November 28, 2016}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://ashbrook.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/madisons_debates.pdf|title=The Debates in the Federal Convention of 1787 by James Madison|publisher=Ashland University|access-date=July 30, 2020}}</ref> Madison acknowledged that while a popular vote would be ideal, it would be difficult to get consensus on the proposal given the prevalence of [[slavery]] in the South:
{{blockquote|There was one difficulty, however of a serious nature attending an immediate choice by the people. The right of suffrage was much more diffusive in the Northern than the Southern States; and the latter could have no influence in the election on the score of Negroes. The substitution of electors obviated this difficulty and seemed on the whole to be liable to the fewest objections.<ref>[https://www.loc.gov/resource/llscdam.llfr002/?sp=61&st=image&r=-0.437,-0.019,1.83,0.87,0 Records of the Federal Convention, p. 57] Farrand's Records, Volume 2, A Century of Lawmaking for a New Nation: U.S. Congressional Documents and Debates, 1774–1875, Library of Congress</ref>}}

The convention approved the committee's Electoral College proposal, with minor modifications, on September 4, 1787.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://avalon.law.yale.edu/18th_century/debates_906.asp|title=Debates in the Federal Convention of 1787: September 6|publisher=Avalon Project|access-date=April 13, 2011}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.nps.gov/articles/000/constitutionalconvention-september4.htm|title=September 4, 1787: The Electoral College (U.S. National Park Service)|website=www.nps.gov}}</ref> Delegates from states with smaller populations or limited land area, such as Connecticut, New Jersey, and Maryland, generally favored the Electoral College with some consideration for states.<ref>{{cite book|last=Madison|first=James|title=Notes of Debates in the Federal Convention of 1787|year=1966|publisher=The Norton Library|asin=B003G6AKX2|page=294}}</ref>{{Primary source inline|date=February 2024}} At the compromise providing for a runoff among the top five candidates, the small states supposed that the House of Representatives, with each state delegation casting one vote, would decide most elections.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Patrick|first1=John J.|last2=Pious|first2=Richard M.|last3=Ritchie|first3=Donald A.|title=The Oxford Guide to the United States Government|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9nYh3RocaG8C|year=2001|publisher=Oxford University Press, USA|isbn=978-0-19-514273-0|page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=9nYh3RocaG8C&dq=%22small+states%22+%22large+states%22+%22electoral+college%22&pg=PA208 208]}}</ref>

In ''[[The Federalist Papers]]'', [[James Madison]] explained his views on the selection of the president and the [[United States Constitution|Constitution]]. In [[Federalist No. 39]], Madison argued that the Constitution was designed to be a mixture of [[Federalism in the United States|state-based]] and [[Proportional representation|population-based]] government. [[United States Congress|Congress]] would have two houses: the state-based [[United States Senate|Senate]] and the population-based [[United States House of Representatives|House of Representatives]]. Meanwhile, the president would be elected by a mixture of the two modes.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://avalon.law.yale.edu/18th_century/fed39.asp|title=The Federalist 39|publisher=Avalon Project|access-date=April 13, 2011}}</ref>

[[Alexander Hamilton]] in [[Federalist No. 68]], published on March 12, 1788, laid out what he believed were the key advantages to the Electoral College. The electors come directly from the people and them alone, for that purpose only, and for that time only. This avoided a party-run legislature or a permanent body that could be influenced by foreign interests before each election.<ref name="The Federalist Papers: No. 68">Hamilton. [http://avalon.law.yale.edu/18th_century/fed68.asp The Federalist Papers: No. 68] The Avalon Project, Yale Law School. viewed November 10, 2016.</ref>{{Primary source inline|date=February 2024}} Hamilton explained that the election was to take place among all the states, so no corruption in any state could taint "the great body of the people" in their selection. The choice was to be made by a majority of the Electoral College, as majority rule is critical to the principles of [[Republic|republican government]]. Hamilton argued that electors meeting in the state capitals were able to have information unavailable to the general public, in a time before telecommunications. Hamilton also argued that since no federal officeholder could be an elector, none of the electors would be beholden to any presidential candidate.<ref name="The Federalist Papers: No. 68"/>

Another consideration was that the decision would be made without "tumult and disorder", as it would be a broad-based one made simultaneously in various locales where the decision makers could deliberate reasonably, not in one place where decision makers could be threatened or intimidated. If the Electoral College did not achieve a decisive majority, then the House of Representatives was to choose the president from among the top five candidates,<ref>The [[Twelfth Amendment to the United States Constitution|Twelfth Amendment]] changed this to the top three candidates,</ref>{{Citation needed|date=February 2024}} ensuring selection of a presiding officer administering the laws would have both ability and good character. Hamilton was also concerned about somebody unqualified but with a talent for "low intrigue, and the little arts of popularity" attaining high office.<ref name="The Federalist Papers: No. 68"/>

In the [[Federalist No. 10]], James Madison argued against "an interested and overbearing majority" and the "mischiefs of faction" in an [[electoral system]]. He defined a faction as "a number of citizens whether amounting to a majority or minority of the whole, who are united and actuated by some common impulse of passion, or of interest, adverse to the rights of other citizens, or to the permanent and aggregate interests of the community." A republican government (i.e., [[representative democracy]], as opposed to [[direct democracy]]) combined with the principles of [[federalism]] (with distribution of voter rights and separation of government powers), would countervail against factions. Madison further postulated in the Federalist No.{{nbsp}}10 that the greater the population and expanse of the Republic, the more difficulty factions would face in organizing due to such issues as [[sectionalism]].<ref>''The Federalist Papers: Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, John Jay'' The New American Library, 1961.</ref>

Although the United States Constitution refers to "Electors" and "electors", neither the phrase "Electoral College" nor any other name is used to describe the electors collectively. It was not until the early 19th century that the name "Electoral College" came into general usage as the collective designation for the electors selected to cast votes for president and vice president. The phrase was first written into federal law in 1845, and today the term appears in {{USC|3|4}}, in the section heading and in the text as "college of electors".<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.archives.gov/federal-register/electoral-college/faq.html|title=U. S. Electoral College: Frequently Asked Questions|website=archives.gov|date=September 19, 2019}}</ref>