1. AMERICAN GOVERNMENT

2. More time spent deciding how to choose a president than any other matter Originally most of the delegates favored selection by Congress Later, Alexander Hamilton said that allowing Congress to decide would put the President “too much under Congress’s thumb” Most framers thought that choosing a president by popular vote would lead to “tumult and disorder”

3. After weeks of debate, the Framers decided that the President and Vice President should be chosen by a special body of PRESIDENTIAL ELECTORS Each elector would cast 2 ELECTORAL VOTES, each for a different candidate. The candidate with the most votes would become President, second most would be Vice President Electors were supposed to be “the most enlightened and respectable citizens”

4. ELECTORAL COLLEGE—each state had the number of electors equal to the number of representatives in Congress The process worked while Washington was President Flaws appeared in 1796 with the rise of political parties President and Vice President could come from different parties Example: Pres: John Adams (Fed); V-P Thomas Jefferson (D-R)

5. THE ELECTION OF 1800 The electoral system broke down Two well-defined political parties Thomas Jefferson & Aaron Burr (both D-R) tied with 73 electoral votes each The House of Representatives chose Jefferson in 1801 after 36 ballots

6. 3 new elements in the presidential selection process 1) party nominations for president and vice- president 2) the nomination of candidates for presidential electors pledged to vote for their party’s presidential ticket 3) the automatic casting of electoral votes in line with those pledges Gone was the notion that electoral could act as free agents and choose whoever they wanted

7. THE XIITH AMENDMENT Ratified in 1804 Only one major change in the electoral college system “The Electors … shall name in their ballots the person voted for as President, and in distinct ballots the person voted for as Vice-President…” The XIIth Amendment and the appearance of parties set the framework for the system that is still in place today THE END