Who knows why the electoral college was created?
487823
At the Constitutional Convention 1789 each State considered itself a separate soverign country and the Constitution was essentially, the States giving up some of their inherent rights to a central government.  Think of the formation of the European Union. \nTransportation was by horse and wagon.  People did not know of anyone not within their local area.  Most delegates were afraid that voters just would not know enough about the canidates to make an educated choice.  Delegates did think that voters would know their local personages and could make a choice among those persons.\nDelegates from small states were afraid that their interests would be ignored if a candidate could be elected just with the votes from Virginia and Massacusuts (the two most populated states).\nFrom all of this, and a few other more minor factors, a compromise was reached:\n    So that voters would be able to intelligently exercise their choice, they would vote for state delegates (electors) who would then use their better knowlege of the candidates to vote for the person the delegates thought the persons who voted for them would choose if they knew the candidates.  For example, I'm in Goose Fork and I've never been outside of Goose Fork.  I know Dr. Smith and Rev. White.  I vote for Dr. Smith as a elector.  Dr. Smith goes to the state capital talks with the other electors and decides that the people who voted for him would prefer John Adams to Aaron Burr.\nTo minimize the advantage candidates from larger states might have, the Convention gave each state electors equal to the number of Senators and Representitives the state had.  Each state gets two Senators and Representatives are allocated by population, thereby giving votes in smaller states greater weight.\n\nExcuse the spelling but the spell check is on the fritz.
709192
Well, with our current system, your vote really doesn't count much. Especially in Presidential elections. The Electoral College is a huge disaster for MANY reasons, and has got to got. Evidence: George Bush is president.
1152586
I actually thought it was more Federalist/Republican, cause it gave much more big government rights than the Articles of Confederation, but I suppose it preserved and made lasting many democratic traditions (like House of Reps depending on population, voting for those in office--even though electoral college was made to protect the rich from the masses), and even though the men were very elite, they made every effort to give everybody equal rights, as long as they did not fear the danger (ie French Rev. memories) and gave the poor a chance to ascend to the top.
58119
All that stuff is because of their constitutions or whatever piece of writing they use as their basis for government. In our case, we have the U.S. Constitution. It dictates when presidents are elected and how they are elected and the length of their terms. I would imagine that all countries have something similar to that for their reasoning. Their founding fathers, or at least the one's who redrafted their constitutions, are the ones who decide what it should be.
1039857
There is a reason for it to exist.  The Electoral College was designed to make sure that there is a clearcut winner in the Presidential election to avoid the problems that could arise if the transition between administrations was not peaceful, as has been observed in other countries.  It also doesn't cut the small states out of the equation for selecting a President, for, due to the fact that each state's electoral vote is equal to its number of Senators and Representatives in Congress, the smaller states have a larger percentage of the Electoral College total than they do of the overall population (e.g. Wyoming's population is roughly 1/100 that of California, but in the Electoral College Wyoming gets 3 votes to California's 56 or so).  It is also not a "secret society" as almost every state has a law that the electors to the College are bound to vote for the person getting the highest percentage of the popular vote in the state (as each party nominates its own electors for each election, it's usually the case that those people will vote for the candidate of that party).\n\nAnd, given that it is part of the Constitution, and that that can only be changed by an amendment that would have to be ratified by 3/4 of the states, the Electoral College will always be with us, because there are at least 13 states that are intelligent enough to see that they don't want to give any more power to California.
497805
omg, i never thought about that LOL.  what if the United States held an election and no one showed up?  I bet the electorial college would still elect someone even if we didn't actually vote for that person.  Wait, that happened already with Bush lol.  guess that answers that.
29280
Your partly right.  It keeps this country a Federal Republic because what happens when we vote for President we are actually voting for the electorial college. \n\nIf we didn't have the electoral college There wouldn't be any need for canidates to visit all the states.  Then it just comes down to the biggest states.\n\nThe electoral college gives the smaller states a voice in government so that the bigger states can impose their will on the whole country
234740
Yes,thank God someone remembered to ask this question. The Electoral College ,what's it good for, the President should be elected by popular vote,case closed. The electors, constitutionally, aren't even required to vote for who the people say they should vote for. This is a "horse and buggy",extremely archaic law, which has no relevance in the modern day US.
124688
This is a good subject I would love to see some debate on.  My first thought is we should elimnate electoral vote and go with the majority vote. But that would mean the east and west coast would pretty much decide who/what gets elected.  With the elctoral vote every state has a say.  Id love to see some answers on this question.
150821
the founding fathers designed this system because they thought that at the time the population was to uneducated to make such critical decisions as choosing the president. in fact the public couldn't choose senators either--they were chosen by the state legislatures. in any event the electoral college is a system that gives one vote per senator/representative that a state has. the electors are mainly chosen by the party that carried the state and when casting the ballots for the candidate that won the state the elector actually has no obligation to use his vote on that candidate other than the knowledge that should he vote for anyone else he would be committing political suicide
1187194
i've seen a lot of responses that say it's because so smaller states have a say. what nonsense!!\nwe have the "college" because our democracy is a farce. a popular vote means whoever receives the most votes wins. we, the american people aren't trusted to vote in a president. it is decided by our "betters". a popular vote is the only way a true democracy can function. that's why our's is broken. and needs fixing badly.
811735
Because at the time, it seemed to make the most sense to everyone.  Some people agreed and others disagreed on some aspects of it but it appeased the majority of people in each state.  Off the top of my head that is what I can come up with at the time.    Dude I answered like two of your history questions.    Do you need things for a history class by the way??  Go to constituioncenter.org if you need more info on the constitution.  Hope that helps!!
1078051
The 20th amendment sets that as the day of inauguration. They chose that date because it allowed Congress sufficient time to count the electoral votes and certify the election. The election takes place in November and the electoral colleges meet in December, at which time the current session of Congress ends. The new session then returns after New Year's on January 3rd and certifies the electoral vote leaving plenty of time for dealing with any discrepancies.
387258
The US was designed as a representative democracy, not an ideal democracy.  Thus we have representatives to vote for us in national elections.\n\nThat being said, the electoral college does have flaws and should be modified or eliminated.  But then so should the 2-per-state Senate, don't you think? Kind of bizarre when someone in Rhode Island is 100 times better represented in Congress than someone in California.
62688
They are actually voting for electors in the electoral college. In most tates, the electors are required to cast a vote for whatever candidate won the popular vote in that state.
853781
Awesome...for the points, I'll take them! And the in the election of 1800, a tie between two men of the same party--Jefferson and Bur--resulted. The 12th amendment made it so the electors vote twice, specifying which man they voted for president and which they voted for vice president.\n\nThanks and have a nice day!
653391
you people do not get the idea of the electoral college. if there was not one states like west Virginia,Iowa , the Dakotas would have no use to presidential political Candide's.. they would be in about 5 states running for election. California, Florida ,Texas , New York were they could pick up popular votes. all the promises would go there and all the money. and yes a little state means everything if  Al Gore had won his home state he would be president.