Thread by @AltWASONPS

The electoral college, as explained in the Federalist No. 19, was put in place a mixture of state based and population based government. Where the Senate was state based, Congress was population based, and the President a mixture of those two.

Before the electorial college was established, it was regonized a popular election was preferred, but that many many states would not give consensus due to the prevalence of slavery in the southern states.

Once the electorial college was implemented, even those who favored a popular election recognized the value of the electorial college due to it's ability to protect the election process from cabal, corruption, intrigue, and faction.

At the time of it's implementation, both the spirit of the Constitution, and as described by the founders in many of their works and letters, it was intended that the President would be the individual with the most votes, the Vice would be the individual with the second....

most votes and that any discrepancies, such as ties, would be determined by the House of Representatives (which reinforces the concept that the President should be determined by the people).

It was also intended for the electors in the electorial college to be determined by the people, and voted for on a district by district basis. Those electors were required to be people who did not already hold a seat of power & intended to be able to reason the will of the people

However, the electorial college, as intended did not work. Early on in 1796 and 1800 it created controversy, where the President and the vice ended up being different parties, and then where two people of the same party tied and the opposition tried to force the...

The intended Vice to become the President and the intended President to be the vice. This was done, essentially, to mock the winning party.

Further, it wasn't that many more years later when some states began to transition to a general ticket..

Where the President would be decided by a pool of electors who were pledged to vote a certain way. This became a power grab of the states, with almost all of them transitioning in an attempt to have greater control of the Federal Government.

While, theoretically allowed under the Constitution, Madison and Hamilton, the literal designers of the electorial college, protested in how it violated the spirit of the Constitution.

This folly was due to them making an assumption in how things would work, rather than explicitly spelling it out.

Hamilton even drafted an amendment, In an attempt to fix this. Unfortunately, by then it was already too late. The seats of power within the states...

had effectively done exactly what the electorial college was intended to prevent, and that was allowing the President to be decided by a small group of people rather than the larger population.

In short, the electoral college never worked as the founders intended, and it's weakness, partly due to assumptions of how things would work rather than writing it out, from the very beginning.

And now, in present day, only two states utilize a process that remotely resembles what the founders intended. Maine and Nebraska use a Congressional District method, rather than the winner takes all approach.

But even, this process can be corrupted as the districts themselves are determined by the same people who are intended to be excluded from the process by the electorial college. They have the ability, a small group of people has the ability to "conspire" to take control.

In short. The electoral college does not work. It never really has. The irony of this whole thing, the debate, the fight for and agaist the electoral college is that

The overarching intent, beyond the desire balance the powers between Federal & State, and between State & People

Was to establish a system that was not a party-ran legislature, one that was intentionally non-permanent to avoid the influence of foreign interest, one that prevented corruption, and one that required for the President to be decided by talent rather than showmanship.

A complete popular vote is not a perfect system. It does ensure equal or even any representation. However, it does one thing. It limits the power of the state over the people by allowing the people to seat someone above the state.

And to me, with all the corruption, with all the scandals, and controversies within local, state, and federal government that occurs on all sides by so many people in power. While not perfect, it ensures a much better balance of power because in the end...

The only reason any of this (the Federal Government, the States, the laws and regulations) exists, the only reason any of it should exist, is because we are here.

It is we the people, not the small group that meets behind closed doors, who should decide our future, our destiny.