On The "Electoral College" System Of America's Presidential Election

On the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia in 1787,after considering numerous plans of presidential election,the framers created the “Electoral College” as America's presidential election system,and wrote it into the Constitution.In terms of the creation of the system,traditional culture and theoretical thinking took huge effect on the selection of the “Electoral College” as America's presidential election plan.British common law tradition was a theoretic source of the “Electoral College”.And puritanism principles and Enlightenment thoughts afforded theoretic foundation for the “Electoral College” system.In the subsequent political practice,big changes took place on the America's presidential election system.The 12 th amendment makes up for the loophole that the voting on “Electoral College” did not distinguish President and Vice-President.And all the states started to employ “winner-take-all” mode as the way to select the presidential electors in their states.In terms of the “Electoral College” system itself,it has distinctive characters.The most distinctive aspect is that the presidential electors consist of “Electoral College” to elect President.The state by state election and President's indirect election is major character of “Electoral College” system as well.Not only the distinctive characters it has,but is the advantage and the disadvantage obvious on the original system devisal.The advantage of the “Electoral College” system reflects on the followings: balance the power between federation and states,safeguard America's federalism;Ensure rotational presidency of two political parties,maintain domestic political stability;Protect the interests of the minority,preserve the republic spirit.And the disadvantage of system devisal reflects on the followings: the election has the shadow of Congress;Every vote has inequivalent weight;the isolation between the popular votes and the elector votes.In term of the operation of “Electoral College” system,it exposed more issues in the process of America's political practice.Among these issues,extremely distinctive issues derive from the “winner-take-all” mode,which causes a series of issues.The “winner-take-all” mode results in different election rules between the level of federation and states,the presidential electors loses the independency,the issue of “faithless elector”,the waste of votes and the restraint of voting rate,unequal status between big states and small states,unequal status between swing-states and non-swing-states and the potential issue of votes exchange.Besides,the operational disadvantage of America's presidential election system also embodies in the following areas: unequal status between political parties,money-oriented politics,inaccuracy of votes capture and the Supreme Court interfered in presidential election.Based on these deficiencies,many people require reform of existing presidential election system and offer many alternative plans.However,for the moment,it is of little possibilities to carry out the alternatives.