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Electoral College: Presidents
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"The initial Electoral College was designed so the second-place winner would be the vice president, but the formal power is with the president," Fortier said. Edwards could make some trouble for the ticket."
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One thing is clear about the political theory underpinning the electoral college: The framers of the Constitution could not agree on one. From the outset, the framers were uncertain about how the president should be chosen. Meeting in the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in 1787, the framers originally decided to have Congress choose the president, and that there should be no popular vote to elect the president. Then the Constitutional Convention decided that the president should be chosen by electors. Later consideration restored the choice to Congress. Toward the close of the convention, a committee came up with the main outlines of the procedure used to this day, selection by electors.
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When Americans vote for a President and Vice President, they are actually voting for presidential electors, known collectively as the electoral college. It is these electors, chosen by the people, who elect the chief executive. The Constitution assigns each state a number of electors equal to the combined total of the state's Senate and House of Representatives delegations; at present, the number of electors per state ranges from three to 54, for a total of 538. Aside from Members of Congress, and persons holding offices of "Trust or Profit" under the Constitution, anyone may serve as an elector.
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In order to appreciate the reasons for the Electoral College, it is essential to understand its historical context and the problem that the Founding Fathers were trying to solve. They faced the difficult question of how to elect a president in a nation that:
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A: Several attempts have been made to get rid of the Electoral College, the last significant effort coming in 1969, when the House of Representatives passed 338-70 an amendment abolishing the Electoral College. The amendment died when it only received 54 votes in the Senate, 13 short of the required two-thirds. While this effort was ultimately unsuccessful, the overwhelming vote in the House shows that getting such an amendment passed is possible. Adding further proof that such an amendment is not only possible, but is favored by the great majority of Americans, a 1966 Gallup poll found that 63% of Americans favored a direct population of the president; a 2000 poll found that 61% did.
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Even if the Northern Province Assembly is not dissolved - which will be a politically mature thing to do - the existing electoral college lacks political legitimacy to elect a President for the next five-year term. The election boycott by opposition parties will simply add to the legitimacy conundrum. The existing electoral college will soon complete its full term and stand dissolved in about three months. The general elections for both the national Parliament and provincial assemblies are scheduled to be held in January, 2008.
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