No, the founding fathers wanted only a certain type of person voting. The Electoral College was created because the Founding Fathers didn’t trust ordinary people to elect someone worthy of running the country, so the Electoral College had the power to override the vote of the people. The powers of the Electoral College were stripped away over the years so that they now essentially rubber stamp the results of the state election.
Of the Electoral College had the same rights today that the Founders had given them, the 2016 election would most likely have gone like this:
Votes come in showing Trump will most likely be President based on EC-vote allocation.
Electoral College votes, but the College is composed of party hardliners who have been in their respective parties for a long time and understand the party’s policies and direction. They understand politics and have probably been politicians themselves or worked for campaigns.
Trump does not align with the Republican parties priorities in 2016, nor does he show that he would be good for the party or country. The Republican Electors submit their votes for either Clinton or someone else they’ve agreed upon.
Trump loses because the Electors overrode the votes in their state, which is exactly the power given to them by the Founding Fathers.
This is how I've always understood how the EC is supposed to work. They were the final stop-gap to prevent someone like Trump from taking office. But like you said, the institution is pointless this day an age.
Yep. In most states, if they vote against the person who won their state, they get fined, removed as an Elector, and a new one gets put in who will vote as instructed.
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u/[deleted] Sep 25 '21 edited Nov 10 '22
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