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An Analysis And Evaluation Of The American Electoral College, Norma N. Williams

Dissertations and Theses

The Constitutional Convention of 1787 was greatly divided over the question of how to select the new nation's chief executive. The method finally adopted was a compromise between direct election and election by the national legislature and provided that individual states, as they saw fit, choose electors equal to the total number of Senators and Representatives. From the beginning, most of delegates considered the proposal awkward and irrational almost to the point of absurdity, but as they argued about it, they became convinced that it was then the only plan which could overcome the objections raised by other methods.

The …