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The electoral college as a tool for the Separation of Powers
by Kat Howarth (KatHowarth)
Cite as: Kat Howarth, ‘The electoral college as a tool for the Separation of Powers’ in N. P. Cole, Grace Mallon and Kat Howarth, The Creation of the Electoral College, Quill Project at Pembroke College (Oxford, 2016), item 78.
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
The separation and independence of the Executive, Legislature, and Judiciary was a concept of utmost importance to the Framers throughout the course of the Convention, and here Gouverneur Morris suggests that it was the driving force behind their decision to replace the election of the Executive by the Legislature with the creation of an electoral college. Morris refers to the perceived dissatisfaction of the Convention delegates as a whole with the idea of electing using the Legislature, and suggests the Committee found it 'necessary' to ensure there was separation between the two.
This fits neatly with the emphasis throughout the rest of the Convention on ensuring the Separation of Powers.
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