on’s size continues to go up, individual voting power continues to drop.This power of the smaller states was especially evident during this year’s election. For the first time in many years, the candidates knew that the election would be close. Because of this, presidential and vice-presidential candidates visited smaller states in record numbers. For example, Oregon, with its 7 Electoral votes had 17 visits from these candidates during this election. This more than tripled the number of visits during the 1996 presidential race and reinforced the importance of smaller states having the Electoral College.The third, and last purpose, for the Electoral College was that the framers did not trust the “mob.” (Natapoff). They believed that a large electorate could easily “fall prey to passions, rumors, and tumult.” Electors were supposed to consider each candidate’s merits more judiciously, not just blindly follow the popular will. Akhil Amar, a government professor at Yale University, argues that the Electoral College was set up 200 years ago because, “Common people may not have enough accurate information to make a wise decision and therefore needed someone to ensure the right choices would be made.”(Onion). James Madison, chief architect of the Electoral College, also wanted to protect each citizen against, “the most insidious tyranny that arises in democracies: the massed power of fellow citizens banded together in a dominant bloc. A well-designed democracy might include obstacles to thwart an overbearing majority and to prevent a candidate from only wooing the largest bloc.” Madison further explained in the Federalist Papers (No. X), “a well-constructed Union must, above all else, break and control the violence of faction, especially the superior force of an overbearing majority. In any democracy, a majority’s power threatens minorities. It threatens their righ...
