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An element of chance
by Dr Nicholas Cole (npcole)
Cite as: Dr Nicholas Cole, ‘An element of chance’ in N. P. Cole, Grace Mallon and Kat Howarth, The Creation of the Electoral College, Quill Project at Pembroke College (Oxford, 2016), item 75.
The Creation of the Electoral College
(To read a specific commentary item, please click on its link.)
- The choice of the president in the national legislature
- Election by the people and the merits of election by Congress
- The 'chimerical' nature of election by the people
- The first idea of an electoral college
- A role for state legislatures
- Independence via ineligibility
- An accountable executive
- Concerns of the Committee of the Whole
- An equal voice for all states?
- A democratic magistrate
- The merits of popular election debated
- The problem of forbidding re-election
- A President for life?
- A summary of the difficulties presented by the creation of the executive
- The electoral college proposed for a second time
- The electoral college agreed to
- Election by National Legislature reinstated
- An element of chance
- Alternative modes of election
- The President to be chosen by the State Governors
- Madison's comment on various modes of election
- Committee of detail report
- The idea of an electoral college reintroduced
- The electoral college as a tool for the Separation of Powers
- Limitations of the Electoral College
- Ineligibility and the Electoral College
- Qualifications for Electors
- A role for the House of Representatives instead
- The final iteration of the electoral college
Commentary
Wilson's proposal here introduced an element of chance to the selection of the chief magistrate, amid what appear to have become increasingly difficult disputes over almost every aspect of the election which had been agreed to this point. Aside from a classically-inspired use of the lot, this proposal represented an attempt to return to the idea of selection by the national legislature, and it is difficult to see why Wilson thought this proposal had a greater chance of success or was superior to proposals that simply allowed the national legislature to make the choice of executive magistrate.
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