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The electoral college agreed to
by Dr Nicholas Cole (npcole)
Cite as: Dr Nicholas Cole, ‘The electoral college agreed to’ in N. P. Cole, Grace Mallon and Kat Howarth, The Creation of the Electoral College, Quill Project at Pembroke College (Oxford, 2016), item 74.
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
Compared to the final version of the constitution, many elements of the choice of the President have yet to be adjusted. The formula agreed to here is crude, with no effort to provide for future elections, and the term of service of the magistrate is still six rather than the final four years. The chief magistrate at this stage could still have been removed for 'malpractice or neglect of duty'. But the principle that he should be chosen by a body of electors, specially selected for that purpose and paid compensation for their service, had been agreed. However, the Convention was soon to return to these questions.
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