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Before the Constitution, the United States had a simple legislature with just one chamber. All the national legislative, executive, and judicial powers were in the hands of that Congress. It was government by committee, and it was a mess. 

There was broad agreement that a new government would include an executive—a separate branch of government to run things. What that might look like was a big question at the Constitutional Convention.

Delegates started work on Monday, May 28th, 1787. The Virginia Plan was introduced the next day. It was the first draft of what would become the new Constitution, and it called for “a National Executive … to be chosen by the National Legislature.” 

The delegates debated about federal powers on Wednesday, the legislative branch on Thursday, then the executive branch on Friday. Right away, Delegate James Wilson, from Pennsylvania, proposed that the executive should be one person (the president). Later that day, the Convention considered how to select the president. 

Wilson said he supported a popular election “in theory” so that the legislative and executive branches would be “as independent as possible of each other.” Rodger Sherman from Connecticut supported the Virginia Plan’s parliamentary system, saying the executive should be “absolutely dependent” on the legislature. Virginia’s George Mason thought a popular election “impracticable,” but hoped Wilson would “have time to digest it into his own form.” Another delegate suggested that the Senate should choose the president. Then the Convention adjourned for the evening.

When they met on Saturday morning, Wilson had taken Mason’s advice. He presented a plan to create districts and hold popular elections to choose electors. These electors would then vote for the national executive. In other words, Wilson proposed an electoral college. But with many details left out, Wilson’s proposal was voted down. At that point, only Pennsylvania and Maryland voted in favor of the electoral college plan.

During the next three months, the Constitutional Convention had lots of debates about how to elect the president. Elbridge Gerry from Massachusetts proposed that state governors should do it. Another idea was that Congress would choose new presidents, but some other group would decide whether they get reelected. There was even a proposal that members of Congress, chosen by a lottery, be locked in a room and not let out until they elect a president.

In late July, James Madison from Virginia argued that “The Option before us [is] between an appointment by Electors chosen by the people—and an immediate appointment by the people.” In other words, either an electoral college or a direct election.

Madison had preferred a direct election by the people, but he saw two problems with that system. First, voters likely would prefer candidates from their own state, giving an advantage to larger states. Second, areas where voters were packed close together would have more power.

Madison identified this second concern with the Southern states. This has led some people to claim that Madison’s eventual support for the Electoral College was just about helping slave states. Yet Virginia was the largest state by population, whether enslaved people are included or not. Pennsylvania, with almost no slaves, had the second largest population even counting slaves in other states. Southern states did have smaller populations, on average (much smaller if you exclude slaves). But the most important rebuttal is what happened next.

Wrapping up his speech, Madison dismissed his own argument. Southern populations would grow, he said, and “local considerations must give way to the general interest.” It was Oliver Ellsworth from Connecticut—a New England state—who jumped in to defend small states and argue against a direct election. Ellsworth was the same delegate who had proposed the “Connecticut Compromise” that broke the deadlock between large and small states over Congress (representation in the House is based on population, but states have equal representation in the Senate).

Ellsworth’s Connecticut was actually about average in population—Maine, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont had much smaller populations. Also worth remembering is that slavery was legal in most of the North and had plenty of opponents in the South.

While Madison had argued half-heartedly for a direct election, he also had spoken positively about an electoral college, finding “very little opportunity for cabal, or corruption” in such a system. Other Delegates repeated concerns about small states being ignored in a direct election and raised additional objections. Gerry, from Massachusetts, said a “popular election [would be] radically vicious” because it would, in effect, hand over power to organizations capable of manipulating public opinion. Another delegate worried a national election would become “complex and unwieldy.” 

By August 31st, the new Constitution was nearly finished—except for the process of electing the president. The question was put in the hands of a committee made up of one delegate from each of the eleven states represented at the Convention. That committee, which included Madison, presented its plan on September 4thand it was adopted the next day with minor changes.

The Electoral College is described in article II, section 1, of the Constitution. It says:

Each State shall appoint, in such Manner as the Legislature thereof may direct, a Number of Electors, equal to the whole Number of Senators and Representatives to which the State may be entitled in the Congress…. 

Each state gets at least three electors—two for its senators and one for each of its representatives in the House. This borrows directly from the Connecticut Compromise. Small states get a boost based on their two senators, but larger states get more electors based on their representatives. State legislatures decide how to select their state’s electors. The paragraph concludes with a prohibition against federal officials serving as electors (Oregon Republicans had one elector disqualified in 1876 because he was a deputy postmaster).

The next paragraph explains how electors vote.

The Electors shall meet in their respective States, and vote by Ballot for two Persons, of whom one at least shall not be an Inhabitant of the same State with themselves. … The Person having the greatest Number of Votes shall be the President, if such Number be a Majority…. In every Case, after the Choice of the President, the Person having the greatest Number of Votes of the Electors shall be the Vice President. 

It takes a majority of electoral votes to become president. If no candidate has a majority, or there is a tie, then the House of Representatives elects the president. In this “contingency election,” each state’s delegation casts one vote, and a majority vote of all states is required to win. In 1804, the 12th Amendment made it so electors vote separately for president and vice president.

The Electoral College today works as a two-step democratic process. Voters in each state choose their state’s presidential electors. Those electors then vote for president and vice president. This is a more direct election than in parliamentary systems, like Canada, Japan, and the United Kingdom. It is also the basis for similar electoral colleges in Germany and India.

This article is adapted from the Encounter Broadside book, Why We Must Defend the Electoral College.