In recent American elections, it appears that only a few states matter in the grand scheme of things. In such a vast country, the privilege and attention given to the few swing states might upset the majority. The road that America traveled down to get to this point was long and tumultuous. To fully understand the American system of the electoral college, it is necessary to understand the history that led to this process. Many characteristics of modern American politics weren’t even thought of at the birth of the country. Things currently required like candidates campaigning were completely foreign centuries ago. The system itself was also completely dysfunctional because political parties emerged. 

When the colonists finally gained their independence from Britain, they had a perfect start to their nation. How could they not rally behind the noble figure of George Washington. Washington unanimously won the Presidency, but this utopia would not continue to be the reality and he could sense it. Washington was a brave man and although he had many motivations to not pursue a third term, one of his main reasons was that he didn’t want to set a power hungry precedent. Another reason was the development of political parties and the stark polarization that was present between the Federalists and Democratic-Republicans. Originally, first place in the Presidential Elections became President and second place became Vice-President. The College was created before political parties were present and aimed to get the two most qualified candidates from the country into the Oval Office.  Washington was extremely fearful of what political parties would become and how they would divide the Nation. With the political scene set by the Elections of 1796 and 1800, it was clear there needed to be change. None of the four candidates could reach the majority in 1800 to become President and the House of Representatives had to decide the Presidency. A big change had to be made and that came in the form of the 12th Amendment. 

Even with this change to the Constitution which designated votes for Presidents and Vice Presidents, the Election of 1824 found problems with the system as well. Even though Andrew Jackson had the most electoral votes, he couldn’t reach the majority to be elected for President. This election was resolved by the House of Representatives and Jackson lost to what he thought was a Corrupt Bargain. After this election, there were certainly more bumps in the road but for the most part the Electoral College did its job.

At the end of the day, we are a part of a Democratic Republic and the Electoral College enables both aspects of this system to be true. The Electoral College was created to prevent smaller states from being ignored by candidates. If it was just a popular vote these states would be completely neglected and only high population cities would be targeted by candidates. Although it might not seem the most ideal or fair at times it has been tried and tested. After the Election of 1824, problems with the Electoral College doing what it was supposed to do were rare. There is a recent phenomenon of candidates winning the popular vote but losing the Electoral vote. This is not super common, but it makes sense to a certain extent. There are high population states that end up in a landslide while some lower population states that have a decent amount of Electoral votes and are extremely tight. The nature of the winner-takes-all system allows the Electoral College to be a Democratic-Republic. Instead of the Electoral College, the biggest problem our country faces is the extremely polarizing nature of political parties as Washington warned.