Electors should Vote their Educated and Considered Conscience for President

As intended (Federalist Papers #68): electors are to vote their educated and considered conscience for the best person to be President, without regard for how their party or state of origin voted.

Today, a mere 10 days from the day that Electors from around the nation shall file their most important vote, we find ourselves in an anguished state of mind. There is the mindset to vote as their state did or to follow the guidance of Publius, more accurately, Hamilton. Each elector was to be chosen by the public and was to be educated people who would carefully consider everything and would vote their conscience without regard to political party or state affiliation. Not an easy task for the most principled, while we find several enamored by the whims of power and today’s Main Stream Media.

To decompose any irregularities throughout the country due to false voting, or rigged voting structures, there is the electoral college, created to save the country from its own self-destruction. In Anti-Federalist Papers 72, the anonymous Republicus argues that the issues with the Electoral College deal with the ability of electors, rather than the people, to elect the president. In his eyes, it removes the ability of the people to select their leader and instead delegates that right to a smaller amount of individuals. Republicus further speculates, “is it not probable, at least possible, that the president who is to be vested with all this demi omnipotence — who is not chosen by the community; and who consequently, as to them, is irresponsible and independent that he, I say, by a few artful and dependent emissaries in Congress, may not only perpetuate his own personal administration but also make it hereditary?” Republicus’s fears are of a hypothetical stronger executive whom he compared to Britain’s George III.

Therefore, the direct election of the president is left up to those who have been selected by the voters to become the electors. This indirect election is justified by Hamilton because while a republic is still served, the system allows for only a certain type of person to be elected president, preventing individuals who are unfit for a variety of reasons to be in the position of chief executive of the country. America, within her short history, has not elected an unfit person into the office before the inauguration. We are seeing this in not only of Donald Trump but also Hillary Clinton. It is the time that the electors voted for a principled, constitutional POTUS in 2016.

As a combination of discussions and compromises, the Hamilton electors were in justifying the use of the Electoral College, Hamilton focuses on a few arguments dealing with the use of the Electoral College instead of direct election. First, in explaining the role of the general populace in the election of the president, Hamilton argues that the “sense of the people”, through the election of the electors to the Electoral College, should be a part of the process. The final say, however, lies with the electors, who Hamilton notes are,

Men most capable of analyzing the qualities adapted to the station and acting under circumstances favorable to deliberation, and to a judicious combination of all the reasons and inducements which were proper to govern their choice.

Therefore, the direct election of the president is left up to those wh
o have been selected by the voters to become the electors. This indirect election is justified by Hamilton because while a republic is still served, the system allows for only a certain type of person to be elected president, preventing individuals who are unfit for a variety of reasons to be in the position of chief executive of the country.