Originally Posted By TomSawyer It's coming up on the time every four years when pundits start saying that it's time to get rid of the Electoral College. I don't think we should, and here's why. Our system is founded on the idea that we elect those to whom we grant the right to represent us and to vote on our behalf. The office of the presidency is not intended to have any direct authority over the individual citizens of the country. The office is a federal position and is meant as an administrator for the federal government. It is also meant to be our representative in international dealings. The federal government was created as an federation of sovereign states. The idea that the president would have powers over the individual citizens or that he would represent individual citizens was not considered. The citizens were citizens of their states. The president was a representative of and administrator for the business of the states assembled in Congress. The reason that the founding fathers set up the Electoral College had nothing to do with the distances involved in colonial times or anything like that. They set it up in such a way that the state governments would create an ad hoc group of electors every four years to select someone that could do the job. The Constitution grants the states to determine how those electors are selected, and most state constitutions tie it to the popular vote. (Only about 1/3 of the states tied it to popular vote as late as the 1820s.) There is really no negotiation any more as the electors are usually tied to the popular vote. I think that many of the problems that we have had in the expansion of presidential powers (and the abuse of those powers) is tied to the popular election of the president. It's too easy these days to elect a president who doesn't have a firm understanding of what the country needs, and political expedience and re-election becomes the basis for national policy rather than sound bites and personality. I know that the Civil War changed us from a federation of sovereign states to an inseparable nation, but I think that we could move past a lot of the rhetoric and pandering that marks modern politics if we were to devolve much of the power back to the states and return the presidency to the limited powers the office once had.
