Regarding the electoral college: This process of election was instituted to “afford a moral certainty that the office of the president will seldom fall to the lot of any man who is not an eminent degree endowed with the requisite qualifications.”
Interestingly, one of the possibilities they were concerned with was that a foreign power would gain an improper ascendant to our councils, as stated in Federalist No. 68: “How could they better gratify this than by raising a creature of their own to the chief magistracy of the union?”
The electoral college was intended to ensure that calmer and wiser heads had the final say as to who was elected president.
Read the Federalist Papers and it will be clear that the Founding Fathers sought to prevent “We the People” from electing an unqualified person.
Over time the electoral college has devolved from the intent of the founders. All electors should be free to vote for the person they think most qualified, as was the original intent.
James R. Daily
Belle Plaine