{"id":14609,"date":"2020-09-16T11:18:00","date_gmt":"2020-09-16T15:18:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/?p=14609"},"modified":"2020-09-23T09:43:24","modified_gmt":"2020-09-23T13:43:24","slug":"federalist-68-electoral-college","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/federalist-68-electoral-college\/","title":{"rendered":"Federalist 68: Why Do We Have the Electoral College?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>What is Federalist 68 about? How does Federalist Paper 68 explain and defend the Electoral College?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Federalist 68 is about the way the President is elected. The Electoral College gives power to the states in choosing who leads the country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Read more about Federalist 68.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Federalist 68<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Despite the considerable powers of the presidency, the office\u2019s authority was heavily restricted by the provisions of the Constitution. <\/strong>Unlike a monarchy, the presidency was <em>not <\/em>a hereditary office conferred upon the incumbent by right of birth and held for life; instead, the president was elected (albeit indirectly) by the people through the Electoral College and served a fixed term of four years. Presidents could run for reelection as many times as they wished, but, unlike a king, would face political competition for their office.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Indeed, the states would play a key role, according to Federalist Paper 68. The Electoral College guaranteed that the president would not be chosen in a national election that treated the states as non-entities. The states were the elemental unit in the Electoral College, with each state receiving electoral votes equal to its combined number of representatives and senators.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The President is indirectly elected by the members of the Electoral College, a body of electors chosen specifically for the purpose of choosing the chief executive. Lastly, the new Constitution expressly prohibited the establishment of titles of hereditary nobility. The supporters of the new government believed that these safeguards made it essentially representative in character.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>The Three-Fifths Compromise and the Electoral College<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p>We\u2019ve already seen how each state\u2019s number of House members was to be tied to its population, as determined by the decennial census. <strong>But this didn\u2019t answer the question of enslaved people. How were they to be counted?<\/strong> Federalist 68 helps answer that. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The slaveholding states (located primarily in the South) had insisted at the Constitutional Convention that enslaved people be counted as full persons for purposes of representation (which would have given the South an outsized influence in Congress), but <em>not <\/em>for purposes of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/direct-taxation-power\/\">direct taxation<\/a> (which would reduce the federal tax burden to be borne by the slaveholding states). In other words, southerners wanted to treat slaves as <em>people <\/em>when it would benefit them, and as <em>property <\/em>when <em>that <\/em>would benefit them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Eventually, the delegates reached the notorious Three-Fifths Compromise. This stated that enslaved people were to count as three-fifths of a person for <em>both <\/em>federal representation and for direct taxation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>(Shortform note: This concession to the South gave the region an influence over national politics out of all proportion to its numbers of free white voters. It enabled the slaveholding states to gain additional representatives in the House as well as votes in the Electoral College that they wouldn\u2019t have otherwise had. The compromise was only repealed by the Fourteenth Amendment in 1868, which explicitly stated that representation was to be allotted based on \u201cthe whole number of persons in each State.\u201d)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>What is Federalist 68 about? How does Federalist Paper 68 explain and defend the Electoral College? Federalist 68 is about the way the President is elected. The Electoral College gives power to the states in choosing who leads the country. Read more about Federalist 68.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":14768,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,24],"tags":[128],"class_list":["post-14609","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lifestyle","category-society","tag-the-federalist-papers","","tg-column-two"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v24.3 (Yoast SEO v24.3) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Federalist 68: Why Do We Have the Electoral College? - Shortform Books<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Did you know the President isn&#039;t selected by individual voters? States hold the power through the Electoral College. Federalist 68 explains.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/federalist-68-electoral-college\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Federalist 68: Why Do We Have the Electoral College?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Did you know the President isn&#039;t selected by individual voters? States hold the power through the Electoral College. Federalist 68 explains.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/federalist-68-electoral-college\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Shortform Books\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2020-09-16T15:18:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2020-09-23T13:43:24+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/s3.amazonaws.com\/wordpress.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/the-federalist-papers-federalist-68-scaled.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"2560\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1696\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Rina Shah\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Rina Shah\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/federalist-68-electoral-college\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/federalist-68-electoral-college\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Rina Shah\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/d07435826f13a8f422d5d333dceac287\"},\"headline\":\"Federalist 68: Why Do We Have the Electoral College?\",\"datePublished\":\"2020-09-16T15:18:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2020-09-23T13:43:24+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/federalist-68-electoral-college\/\"},\"wordCount\":493,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/federalist-68-electoral-college\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/the-federalist-papers-federalist-68-scaled.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"The Federalist Papers\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Lifestyle\",\"Society\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/federalist-68-electoral-college\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/federalist-68-electoral-college\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/federalist-68-electoral-college\/\",\"name\":\"Federalist 68: Why Do We Have the Electoral College? - Shortform Books\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/federalist-68-electoral-college\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/federalist-68-electoral-college\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/the-federalist-papers-federalist-68-scaled.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2020-09-16T15:18:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2020-09-23T13:43:24+00:00\",\"description\":\"Did you know the President isn't selected by individual voters? States hold the power through the Electoral College. Federalist 68 explains.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/federalist-68-electoral-college\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/federalist-68-electoral-college\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/federalist-68-electoral-college\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/the-federalist-papers-federalist-68-scaled.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/the-federalist-papers-federalist-68-scaled.jpg\",\"width\":2560,\"height\":1696},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/federalist-68-electoral-college\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Federalist 68: Why Do We Have the Electoral College?\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/\",\"name\":\"Shortform Books\",\"description\":\"The World&#039;s Best Book Summaries\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Shortform Books\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/logo-equilateral-with-text-no-bg.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/logo-equilateral-with-text-no-bg.png\",\"width\":500,\"height\":74,\"caption\":\"Shortform Books\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"}},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/d07435826f13a8f422d5d333dceac287\",\"name\":\"Rina Shah\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/560b3bc3d51625f9becff4fded992607b156f274aa36bc07f8a4285a1d72cdc8?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/560b3bc3d51625f9becff4fded992607b156f274aa36bc07f8a4285a1d72cdc8?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Rina Shah\"},\"description\":\"An avid reader for as long as she can remember, Rina\u2019s love for books began with The Boxcar Children. Her penchant for always having a book nearby has never faded, though her reading tastes have since evolved. Rina reads around 100 books every year, with a fairly even split between fiction and non-fiction. Her favorite genres are memoirs, public health, and locked room mysteries. As an attorney, Rina can\u2019t help analyzing and deconstructing arguments in any book she reads.\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/author\/rina\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Federalist 68: Why Do We Have the Electoral College? - Shortform Books","description":"Did you know the President isn't selected by individual voters? States hold the power through the Electoral College. Federalist 68 explains.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/federalist-68-electoral-college\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Federalist 68: Why Do We Have the Electoral College?","og_description":"Did you know the President isn't selected by individual voters? States hold the power through the Electoral College. Federalist 68 explains.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/federalist-68-electoral-college\/","og_site_name":"Shortform Books","article_published_time":"2020-09-16T15:18:00+00:00","article_modified_time":"2020-09-23T13:43:24+00:00","og_image":[{"width":2560,"height":1696,"url":"https:\/\/s3.amazonaws.com\/wordpress.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/the-federalist-papers-federalist-68-scaled.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Rina Shah","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Rina Shah","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/federalist-68-electoral-college\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/federalist-68-electoral-college\/"},"author":{"name":"Rina Shah","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/d07435826f13a8f422d5d333dceac287"},"headline":"Federalist 68: Why Do We Have the Electoral College?","datePublished":"2020-09-16T15:18:00+00:00","dateModified":"2020-09-23T13:43:24+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/federalist-68-electoral-college\/"},"wordCount":493,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/federalist-68-electoral-college\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/the-federalist-papers-federalist-68-scaled.jpg","keywords":["The Federalist Papers"],"articleSection":["Lifestyle","Society"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/federalist-68-electoral-college\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/federalist-68-electoral-college\/","url":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/federalist-68-electoral-college\/","name":"Federalist 68: Why Do We Have the Electoral College? - Shortform Books","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/federalist-68-electoral-college\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/federalist-68-electoral-college\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/the-federalist-papers-federalist-68-scaled.jpg","datePublished":"2020-09-16T15:18:00+00:00","dateModified":"2020-09-23T13:43:24+00:00","description":"Did you know the President isn't selected by individual voters? States hold the power through the Electoral College. Federalist 68 explains.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/federalist-68-electoral-college\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/federalist-68-electoral-college\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/federalist-68-electoral-college\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/the-federalist-papers-federalist-68-scaled.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/the-federalist-papers-federalist-68-scaled.jpg","width":2560,"height":1696},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/federalist-68-electoral-college\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Federalist 68: Why Do We Have the Electoral College?"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/","name":"Shortform Books","description":"The World&#039;s Best Book Summaries","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#organization","name":"Shortform Books","url":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/logo-equilateral-with-text-no-bg.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/logo-equilateral-with-text-no-bg.png","width":500,"height":74,"caption":"Shortform Books"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"}},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/d07435826f13a8f422d5d333dceac287","name":"Rina Shah","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/560b3bc3d51625f9becff4fded992607b156f274aa36bc07f8a4285a1d72cdc8?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/560b3bc3d51625f9becff4fded992607b156f274aa36bc07f8a4285a1d72cdc8?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Rina Shah"},"description":"An avid reader for as long as she can remember, Rina\u2019s love for books began with The Boxcar Children. Her penchant for always having a book nearby has never faded, though her reading tastes have since evolved. Rina reads around 100 books every year, with a fairly even split between fiction and non-fiction. Her favorite genres are memoirs, public health, and locked room mysteries. As an attorney, Rina can\u2019t help analyzing and deconstructing arguments in any book she reads.","url":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/author\/rina\/"}]}},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/the-federalist-papers-federalist-68-scaled.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14609","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14609"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14609\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15374,"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14609\/revisions\/15374"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14768"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14609"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14609"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14609"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}