"Now that everybody has discovered that we have an Electoral College and that the cat's out of the bag, so to speak, let's take a quick look at why we have what on the surface appears to be a quirky method of choosing our executive head.
We all remember the Great Compromise, right?
That was when at the Constitutional Convention of 1787 two plans of representation were proposed, each with a legitimate argument in favor of it.
Virginia, the most populous state, naturally thought a legislature in which states were represented by population was fair.
After all, why should the clear majority of the people be effectively thwarted by a small state?
The New Jersey delegates, needless to say, saw it differently.
Each state should be represented equally.
After all, why should a small state be rendered irrelevant by a domineering large state?
So, what to do?
So, what to do?
A Connecticut delegate, Roger Sherman, seeing the justice of both positions, proposed that both could be done.
He wasn't the first to conceive of the idea, but he did manage to persuade the Constitutional Convention to buy into the idea.
Thus was born a bicameral (two house) legislature in which there would be a House of Representatives in which states would be represented by population, and a Senate in which states would be represented equally.
For a bill to become law requires the approval of both houses..."
Interesting!
Read on!
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