[Alberta's Child]

I'd also point out that the Electoral College probably was never designed to work the way we have come to expect it to work every election. It only really works this way because we've resigned ourselves to a political process with only two major parties.

The way the Constitution was written, it seems like there was almost an expectation that many -- if not most -- presidential elections would be decided under the special Congressional election laid out in Article 2, Section 1, Clause 3 of the Constitution.

The key phrase is this:

... if no person received a majority, then the House could again choose one of the five with the greatest number of votes ...

This clearly indicates that there was an expectation that a potentially large number of candidates would be running in a presidential election, not just the two major party candidates that have become the norm.

[old curmudgeon]

I am sure you re correct because one of the founders, I forget which, said that political parties should be avoided as they would be the death of the democracy.

How right he was.

What amazing people they were.