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One Person, One Vote And The Constitutionality Of The Winner-Take-All Allocation Of Electoral College Votes, Christopher Duquette, David Schultz

Tennessee Journal of Law and Policy

The Electoral College is an American political and constitutional curiosity. The constitutional framers believed it would produce "extraordinary persons" as presidents because they would be selected by "men most capable of analyzing the qualities adapted to the station" of the presidency.' Its more recent defenders, such as Martin Diamond, have justified it as either a constitutional system meant to protect individual and minority rights or a mechanism to overcome regionalism. In Diamond's view, along with the principles of separation of powers and checks and balances, it was necessary to thwart the dangers of factionalism that a popular government posed. Some …