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To: Sherman Logan
That said, it should be pointed out that the Electoral College functioned as intended only in the first two elections. Ever since its functionality, to the extent it has any, bears absolutely no resemblance to that intended by the Founders.

Total nonsense....do you want the throngs of idiots in New York and California to solely elect our leaders???? The electoral college gives proportional representation to all!

31 posted on 08/31/2012 9:11:34 PM PDT by terycarl
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To: terycarl

My claim might be partial nonsense, but it is certainly not total nonsense.

The EC was intended to be an assembly of eminent men, selected by each State, rather than by the people of the State. These men would in a very real sense decide on who the candidates were and then elect the President and Vice-President. Technically that is what it still is, as the electors are not legally bound to vote for the candidate to which they are pledged. There is not a trace in the Constitution of the notion of national presidential elections, or even that the people as a whole would know who the candidates were prior to the meeting of the EC.

Since the notion of political parties is absent from the Constitition, and in such absense there is no particular reason to expect the EC to consistently achieve a majority for one man, there are scholars who claim the actual original intent was for the EC to nominate three candidates, with the election among them normally defaulting to the House.

Since 1796 the EC has not in a genuine sense elected anybody. It has in practice, with exception of one or two states, become a way of divvying up the popular vote by State and giving all the State’s votes to a single candidate.

You can argue about whether this is a good or bad thing. But you cannot logically argue it is what the Founders intended.

In the original Constitution only the House of Representative was elected by popular vote, which is why it was called that. All other elections were indirect.


42 posted on 09/01/2012 4:15:29 AM PDT by Sherman Logan
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