by Rebecca Bauer

Created on: February 19, 2009

According to the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration, over 700 proposals have been submitted to Congress to either eliminate or amend the Electoral College since our country's founding, by far the most proposals for any one topic in American history.

Alexander Hamilton argued for the creation of the Electoral College in the Federalist Paper #68, which in part reads: "The process of election affords a moral certainty, that the office of President will never fall to the lot of any man who is not in an eminent degree endowed with the requisite qualifications." In laymen's terms, many historians agree that Alexander Hamilton was an elitist who essentially did not trust the judgment of the ignorant, unwashed masses of his day to elect the President. Above all others, he is the man we have to thank for this complicated, undemocratic method of electing our most important national officer. (On a side note, he was just as unlikable in his own time for such arrogance, as evidenced by his duel and subsequent death at the hands of Jefferson's former Vice President Aaron Burr.)

Most arguments for keeping the EC begin with one of two statements: "If it ain't broke, don't fix it" or "It hasn't failed us so far." The problem with these statements is the slightly inconvenient fact that neither is true. Indeed, there have been four instances in our nation's history where the EC ignored the will of the people by electing the person who did not win the popular vote: Jackson/Q. Adams 1824; Hayes/Tilden 1876; Harrison/Cleveland 1888; Gore/Bush 2000.

For those strict Constitutionalists who argue that the Founders had good reasons to create the Electoral College, I will admit that they had a valid point - in 1789. Written by men having just lived through the Revolutionary War, the Electoral College called for electors to meet in their respective states on a certain date instead of all congregating in one central meeting, hence creating smaller gatherings with less potential for disruption and violence. Yet the major reason why people today still argue that the EC should remain is the fact that it favors small states by giving them a greater percentage of electors compared to their population size. So in today's terms, how is it fair that 537 votes in Florida, which is not exactly a small state population wise, outweigh over half a million votes from other states?

Making changes to the Constitution in no way denies the brilliance of our Founding Fathers. On the contrary,

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