The Electoral College system that determines who will be president is a product of compromise and the complex politics of slavery.

~ By Ava Chand, John McGrath, Melina Mills, Susana Ramirez

When the Founding Fathers met at the Constitutional Convention in 1787, they were freshly out of British control and were wary of executive power. Delegates from different states gathered in Philadelphia to craft the Constitution, including how to select the president of the United States. After months of debate, the Electoral College was born out of comprises that continue to spark debate. 

There was division over whether Congress or the people should choose the president. Some thought that Congress would be susceptible to corruption if it got to decide who was president. There was also a belief that United States citizens needed more resources and knowledge to make informed decisions regarding elections, as David Roos wrote in a 2019 article on History.com. 

James Wilson was a Founding Father and served on the Committee of Detail. According to the National Constitution Center, this group framed a solution at the convention. Wilson acknowledged division within the group. “This subject has greatly divided the House, and will also divide the people out of doors. It is in truth the most difficult of all on which we have had to decide,” said Wilson, according to the National Park Service. 

The solution was the Three-Fifths Compromise. Three of every five enslaved people were counted when determining a state’s population. Hoping for a stronger union between North and South, Wilson supported the Three-Fifths Compromise, despite his stance against slavery, according to the Constitution Center.

The compromise avoided giving enslaved people the right to vote, and ensured that the large population of enslaved people in the South counted toward representation. It was enough to get the Southern states to ratify the Constitution. Northern states also enslaved people, but according to the U.S. Census, by 1790, over 70% of the total enslaved population lived in Southern states.

The Electoral College was the compromise born of this great divide. After extensive debates about creating a government that would work for their new nation, Texas A&M professor emeritus George Edwards III said the Electoral College was not expected to be perfect. “[The Founding Fathers] were tired, impatient, frustrated. They cobbled together this plan because they couldn’t agree on anything else,” he said to History.com in 2019.