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The first idea of an electoral college
by Dr Nicholas Cole (npcole)
Cite as: Dr Nicholas Cole, ‘The first idea of an electoral college’ in N. P. Cole, Grace Mallon and Kat Howarth, The Creation of the Electoral College, Quill Project at Pembroke College (Oxford, 2016), item 62.
The Creation of the Electoral College
(To read a specific commentary item, please click on its link.)
- The choice of the president in the national legislature
- Election by the people and the merits of election by Congress
- The 'chimerical' nature of election by the people
- The first idea of an electoral college
- A role for state legislatures
- Independence via ineligibility
- An accountable executive
- Concerns of the Committee of the Whole
- An equal voice for all states?
- A democratic magistrate
- The merits of popular election debated
- The problem of forbidding re-election
- A President for life?
- A summary of the difficulties presented by the creation of the executive
- The electoral college proposed for a second time
- The electoral college agreed to
- Election by National Legislature reinstated
- An element of chance
- Alternative modes of election
- The President to be chosen by the State Governors
- Madison's comment on various modes of election
- Committee of detail report
- The idea of an electoral college reintroduced
- The electoral college as a tool for the Separation of Powers
- Limitations of the Electoral College
- Ineligibility and the Electoral College
- Qualifications for Electors
- A role for the House of Representatives instead
- The final iteration of the electoral college
Commentary
Wilson's proposal here replaced the idea of electing the executive in the national legislature with the idea of a separate body of electors that would choose (though not from amongst themselves). An element of popular election was introduced, though perhaps the intent here was more to create a wholly separate assembly rather than to make the election of the executive more democratic. As the subsequent debate suggests, this amendment was intended to distance the executive from the congress and preserve his independence, more than it was intended to introduce a greater element of democracy.
And indeed, Williamson's objection to the amendment was precisely on the ground that it merely replicated the kind of relationship that voters already enjoyed with their state legislatures or with the national legislature.
In suggesting the creation of a separate electoral college, Wilson was trying to grant the executive independence from the national legislature while at the same time avoiding making him a creature of the state legislatures. It was, as the Convention recognized, an extremely delicate issue and one that would colour reception of the Constitution.
At this point, however, the Convention remained unconvinced, and voted to retain the idea of an executive elected by the national legislature -- apparently persuaded that the office of the executive would not be too much corrupted by this procedure.
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