Evening star., 1932-10-23
Origin of Our Electoral System
BY FREDERIC J. HASKIN.

whatever advantage the South would
have to forego If that could make pos
sible the election of the President by
the people directly.
Dickinson Of Delaware proposed that
each State should select its best man
and put him forward as its candidate
for the presidency and then the choice
from this list should be made by some
other body, either by Congress or elec-
tors appointed by'Congress. Think what
happy time we would have electing
a President today if the Dickinson plan
had gone through! We would have had
48 States each choosing a presidential
candidate and then Congress meeting
and balloting TO determine which should
be elected
When the convention got down to q
consideration Of the question 1t would
adopt one plan. A little later some one
would suggest a new objection to that
plan and move a reconsideration. Ihls
motion would prevail and then another
plan would be adopted. Again obiec-
tiCns would be forthcoming and again
the question reopened On June 2, by
vote of to 2 States, it was decided
that Congress should exercise the power
OF choice. That action was reaff1rmed
on July IT, but two days later the con-
vention seemed to lose faith in this
method Of election, because 1t rescinded
the former action, and decided that the
choice should be made by the Legis-
latures. Five days later it switched
back to an election by Congress again.
Plan Finally Selected.
About a month later another switch
was made, and this time the election
was TO be made by body of electors to
be chosen by the people of the several
States, but this YVES lost on the next
month by majority Of l. Finally, the
whole matter was referred to a commit
tee of IL, and in a few days that COM
mittee reported the plan which. with
few notifications. was finally accepted.
When the question came up as TO
how the President should be chosen in
the event that the electors could make
no choice, it was first proposed that the
electors should choose two members
from each State to constitute a single
electoral college. which should assem-
ble in Washington, and. being presided
over by the Chief Justice of the Su-
preme Court, choose, by plurality vote.
fIom the three candidates receiving the
highest votes in the electoral colleges
the next Chief Magistrate.
This proposal was altered TO provide
for choice by the House of Representa-
t1veS in the case of the President or by
the Senate In the case of the Vice
President 1t was to be only II years
until this provision would be put to the
test and found faulty. because of the
method of having electors vote twice
and taking the first choice for President
and the second for Vice President. Even
before the experience of 1900 there were
efforts to alter the constitutional plan,
but not until the actual tie vote had
been experienced was anything done
about it.
When the Constitutional Convention
gave the State Legislatures power to
appoint electors il little knew that in
less than half q century from that date
every State in the Union except one
would be choosing electors by popular
vote. When the popular method came
first into use it was the idea that cleo
tors should be chosen just as Senators
and Representatives are chosen today,
the two electors at large by the vote; Of
the whole State and the others one BY
each district. But the large States,
seeing that they could better dominate
things by electing all their electors
as a Statewide body proceeded to
choose them that way This gave them
such power that the smaller States, in
order to prevent their votes from being
split up and neutralized. followed suit.
and that is why the voters of the United
States will vote for the whole number
OF electors in their respective States in
November instead of for only three
two at large and one for the voters own
district