Electoral College

When the constitution of United States was framed there were discussions on various methods of selecting the President and the method of a direct popular vote was rejected. The reasons for rejection were the poor state of communications and the large distances in between the states. This was felt to make the voters really be familiar with the candidates from their own states and this might lead to the victory of a large number of candidates from different states, and thus there may not be any candidate dominating the total election. Another possibility was of the larger states dominating the presidential election.

Instead the Roman method of selecting a College of Electors was chosen. This gave every states representation in the college through a number of people proportionate to its seats in the Congress, or two Senators and a quantum of representatives based on the population. (The American...
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