ElectoralCollege.Org, Election Reform

Questions to be Considered:

What measures are being proposed to strengthen the rules on political donations in the UK? [er]
How should the Electoral College be reformed?
Who among the Founding Fathers would likely support our Electoral College Reform Proposal?
How did the Articles of Confederation distort how "We" elect the president?

Origins of the Electoral College

11/16: Who were the Two Immigrant Founding Fathers Who Conspired to Create the Electoral College?

The four key delegates to the Constitution Convention in 1787 who negotiated the Three-Fifths Compromise and the Electoral College were James Wilson (PA), Pierce Butler (SC), Gouverneur Morris (PA) and James Madison (VA). See the Election Tab for more details and eventually a proposal to reform the Electoral College.

James Wilson.1742-1798 (H7c) was the strongest advocate for the direct popular election of the president. Research indicates that he had a close business relationship with Pierce Butler.1744-1822 (7c) from South Carolina, who was a large owner of property (land and slaves). ElectoralCollege.Org claims that it is highly likely that they negotiated the Three-Fifths compromise that led to the Electoral College and the population conditions on the Direct [Property] Tax.

Both Wilson and Butler were immigrants and about the same age. Wilson immigrated from Scotland and Butler from Ireland. Wilson is recognized as the one who originally proposed on June 2, 1787, the popular vote to elect the president. Butler proposed that representation in the House should include the counting of slaves. In return for the full counting of slaves, he proposed that the slave-owning states would be willing to pay more taxes if taxes were based on the value of property, which included the value of land, improvements, and slaves.

Unknown to many scholars were the personal and financial relationships between Wilson and Butler. Both were land owners. Butler was a very wealthy absentee owner in Georgia of Butler's Island for rice and St. Simons Island for cotton. He had homes in South Carolina and Philadelphia. Wilson lived in Philadelphia and was a land speculator who borrowed from Butler. After the convention, George Washington appointed Wilson to the Supreme Court in 1789. Wilson ran into financial difficulty and was unable to pay Butler. Butler pursued Wilson who escaped to North Carolina where he died. in 1798.

An AI search revealed that James Wilson's proposal of the Three-Fifths Compromise, despite his personal opposition to slavery, was a complex decision driven by several factors. Not mentioned as a factor is our presumption of his personal relationship with Pierce Butler. Possibly unknown at the time, was that Wilson owned a household slave Thomas Purcell. Research is needed to determine when Butler loaned Wilson the money to speculate in land.
Electoral College Reform Proposal
- Allow a popular vote as a state alternative to ratifying amendments to the Constitution by the state legislature
  - At the time of the Constitutional Convention in 1787 the state legislatures were the practical choice
  - State legislative districts can be gerrymandered
- Enhance the sovereignty of the people by eliminating the two extra electoral votes for each state
  - Under the Articles of the Confederation, states were sovereign and the people's allegiance was to their states.
  - Today we Pledge our Allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands.
- Eliminate the winner-take-all electoral votes for each state
  - Every vote should have an equal weight in determining who is president
  - Under the present winner-take-all system the only votes that count are in the 6 or 7 battleground states
  - Most of the Founding Fathers opposed the winner-take-all system
- Allocate the electoral votes for each state in proportion to the popular vote
  - This opens the election to more candidates instead of the binary choice we have today
  - This reform will increase the probabilty that no candidate will receive the majority of electoral votes
- Modify the 12th Amendment to ensure the sovereignty of the people
  - The current 12th Amendment resurrects and elevates state sovereignty over popular sovereignty
  - To insure the people will decide the election when no one candidate has the majority of the electoral votes, here is a two-step solution:
  1. Select the two leading candidates
  2. Let the states decide to use by either ranked choice voting or a runoff election to decide how their votes will be allocated between the two leading candidates
    - No ranked choice voting or runoff election would be needed in states that had their votes cast to only the two leading candidates
- Who among the Founding Fathers would likely support these reforms to the Electoral College?
  - AI says Alexander Hamilton, James Wilson and Gouverneur Morris.
  - I would add Thomas Paine and Benjamin Franklin.
Election and Political Corruption
- The Spoils System
- The Election Campaign of 2024
Election Reform Proposals
- A federal tax incentive to encourage everyone to obtain a Voter ID to be able to register to vote.
- A Voter ID should be required to vote

Sources:

Books
- 2025: Who is Government? The Untold Story of Public Service
  By Michael Lewis
- 2024: The Tech Coup: How to Save Democracy from Silicon Valley
  By Marietje Schaake
Election Reform Sites
- Brennan Center for Justice at NYU
  Works to build an America that is democratic, just, and free.
- Transperancy International - the global coalition against corruption
  Wikipedia: Transperancy International

Questions to be Considered:

11/16: Who were the Two Immigrant Founding Fathers Who Conspired to Create the Electoral College?