What is the Electoral College? Why was it created?

Limits on democracy-The Framers distrusted overly strong governments, but they also distrusted democracy, because they feared that citizens were not always sufficiently informed or broad-minded to make good decisions about important, complicated political issues. Most of them also believed that only men who owned property were truly independent. Men who owned property were considered independent because they presumably could provide for themselves, and so were not dependent on others. Thus, they could be trusted to vote, because no one else was in a position to tell them how to vote. Under this political theory, women and slaves were not allowed to vote, because women were considered dependent on their husbands, while slaves were dependent on their masters. Also the Framers feared that those who did not own property would be dependent on their bosses or landlords, and that they might threaten the rights of property owners if they were allowed to participate in government. When the United States was created, only white men who owned property were permitted to vote (voting requirements were established by the separate states, not by the federal government or the Constitution.) By the 1820s, most states permitted all white men to vote.

The new Constitution created not a democracy, but a republic. While democracy is based on majority rule, republics are based on the belief that elected legislators should represent citizens' interests. The Constitution contains several features designed to limit direct democracy. The House of Representatives was the most democratic part of the government, because it was directly elected by the voters, and because representatives had terms of only two years, so that the House would be very responsive to voters' wishes. The Senate was much less democratic: originally, senators were not elected directly by the voters, but by state legislators. (Senators were not directly elected until 1913.) Also, senators had six-year terms, so that, once elected, a senator was somewhat insulated from voters' wishes. Finally, only one-third of the Senate was elected every two years, so that the make-up of the Senate could be changed only gradually, while the House of Representatives could be changed much more quickly, since each seat in the House was up for election every two years.

Voters also were not allowed to vote directly for the president. Instead, the president was formally elected by the Electoral College, a body in which each state received a number of votes equal to its number of senators and representatives. So, voters chose their electors, who in turn chose the president. A presidential candidate who received a majority of the popular vote in a state received all of that state's electoral votes. The candidate who received a majority of the votes in the Electoral College was elected president. If no candidate received a majority in the Electoral College, the House of Representatives would choose the president, with each state's delegation receiving one vote. The Framers expected that the United States would have many political parties, none of which would win a majority of electoral votes in most elections, and that many presidential elections would be decided by the House of Representatives.

Finally, the courts were designed to be greatly insulated from popular will. Justices of the Supreme Court and other federal judges were allowed to serve for life once they were appointed. The Framers believed that these lifetime appointments would enable judges to be independent. The courts were designed to be the least democratic branch of the government.