by Bill Stone

Created on: March 04, 2008   Last Updated: March 19, 2008

Many people point to the election of 2004 and call it a failure of the Electoral College system. "The people spoke! They chose a President, and he wasn't elected!" In hindsight, however, it is only the Electoral College that forces Presidential candidates to appeal to both sides of the aisle in order to win enough states to gain the majority of the Electorate votes.

First, some history. The Electoral College was put in place because, as in any good representative government, your representatives actually do the work of government. The Virginia Plan, which was used as the framework for the Constitution, directed that the President would be elected by Congress. When the framers sat down to work out the details of this plan, they realized that the states were essentially out of the mix at this point. The people elected the Legislators who, in turn, elected the President. The power of the state was weakened by the lack of participation (at a national vs Federal level) in the appointment of Federal elected officials. Some feared that a small group of men, such as Congress, who met regularly together, would have too much control over the election of the President. They also were worried that a Legislature that chooses an Executive makes one beholden to the other, which would also tip the balance of power. These discussions led them to decide on an Electoral College system (although it wasn't originally called that) which would consist of an equal number of Electors from each State as that State sends to Congress (both houses). This struck a good balance between Federal and State power, and set the national precedent for elections: The people vote for the Legislature, but the States vote for the President.

The Electoral College is still today a valid and trusted method to elect the President for several reasons. Some of the original reasons for its inception are likely no longer valid (such as the fears of Presidential power suppressing the other branches of government), but the majority of the reasons behind its inception are still valid today.

- Maintains the power of the States: The United States is exactly that: a federation of States. If we remove the Electoral College, we move away from that federation of states and towards one big, federally-controlled state, since it is all decided by all the people.

- Well, most of the time anyway: The Electoral College eliminates regional voter issues which might prevent certain voters from making it to the polls. Weather or

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