lege as it came to be was not to take power away from the people, but to rather ensure that Congress didn’t ever have absolute or strong power over election results. As stated so eloquently by Martin Diamond in his 1977 book on the Electoral College, “(The Electoral College was) simply the most practical means by which to secure a free, democratic choice of an independent and effective chief executive,” (Solomon). One might question why the country didn’t just begin to elect their presidents with a direct election system. Was the idea never suggested? On the contrary, it was suggested before that of the Electoral College. The main reason the thought wasn’t taken seriously is because, “…the worry was that, in a vast country with fitful communications, ordinary citizens were likely to know next to nothing about would-be Presidents from afar. Someone in, say, Georgia ‘would be unable to assess the qualifications’ of an aspiring President from Massachusetts, and thus couldn't vote intelligently,” (Solomon). “The prospect of a direct popular vote also upset the small states, which spent the entire Constitutional Convention trying to stop the populous, powerful states (such as Virginia, New York, and Massachusetts) from taking over. When Gouverneur Morris suggested that the President "ought to be elected by the people at large," Roger Sherman of Connecticut offered a Bronx cheer. "The people at large," he contended, according to Madison's notes of the deliberations, "…will generally vote for some man in their own state, and the largest state will have the best chance for the appointment." “The framers (of the Electoral College) assumed that, once the uniquely unifying figure of George Washington accepted and then gave up the presidency, his would-be successors would have regional but not national support” (Solomon). A variety of things had to be taken i...
