Electoral College Strengths And Weaknesses

The Electoral College When the Founding Fathers congregated and drafted the government of the newly-formed America, they wanted a system that would not produce a tyrant, but could also produce a strong executive that would lead and consider the people. They created a system in which power could be checked and with hope, incorruptible. Distributing political power into the Legislative, Judicial, and Executive branches, and an elaborate process to elect leaders in each, the American Constitution was a document revolutionary in its conception. There are irrefutable strengths of the Constitution, just as there are undeniable weaknesses, however both are huge influences on the shaping of our modern political arena. As discussed in this paper,

I cite that a major strength is the difficulty in which the office of president is attained. The founders wanted only the best possible candidates to hold the executive office. They also wanted to deter those who would abuse its power. Creating several layers in-between voters and offices would in theory weed out those who would not suit the office. In hand with that design, omitting and advocating against forming political parties was a great strength to the Constitution. Washington specifically feared that political parties would merely take interest in the party’s needs and not those of the people. Unfortunately, I argue that Washington was correct, as our current parties can show. The development of Super PACs and big business involvement in the interest of our main parties has taken the power of change and voice from the people. We are in political gridlock because of this; congress fights within itself, but will also halt action by the executive branch and judicial determinations. Parties however, are a weakness of the people component of politics, not the Constitution. Another strength of the constitution was the 1804 addendum that held presidential and vice presidential elections under the same ballot. Historically, this came about after the terrifyingly polar opinions of President John Adams and Vice President Thomas Jefferson in 1797. With both

Preventing another tyrant led to severe complication of the election process. The founders did not trust the common people to make the proper decisions. The number of steps between voting and swearing in politicians makes the process difficult to understand. While I do not consider the founders’ distrust a weakness, I consider it a slight weakness now. At the time of its creation, most of the population received no formal education and had few means to understand politics, so it was logical that only those informed should decide who rules. Now as a country we are far more educated and have a myriad of channels to receive information. The electoral college is a bit dated. From this standpoint, it could be argued that the entire document is outdated, however, it does and has worked adequately enough. A reform to the college would be smarter political action rather than doing away with it entirely. A second potential weakness is that the Legislative branch is disproportionally strong compared to the executive. The founders were avoiding another king when creating the Constitution however, they placed too little authority in the hands of the