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C00002 00002	MAYBE WE SHOULD MAKE THE ELECTORAL COLLEGE WORK AS INTENDED
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MAYBE WE SHOULD MAKE THE ELECTORAL COLLEGE WORK AS INTENDED

	The original idea of the electoral college was that its
delegates, chosen by the state legislatures, would meet and recruit
the best possible man for President.  Maybe the idea worked the
very first time when Washington was chosen.  Thereafter, parties
formed, and electoral college delegates were pledged before the
college met.  This meant that they were not free to devote time
to deciding on the qualifications of the candidates and then
make up their minds.

	This was unfortunate, but at least the party conventions
could do so.  Eisenhower was chosen by the Republican convention
in 1952 without entering a single primary; the delegates thought
he was the best person for the party and the country.  Now there
aren't even any unpledged delegates at the party conventions, so
even the candidates are chosen entirely by media campaigns.

	Were the President chosen by unpledged delegates who made
up their minds after a month or two of interviewing candidates and
their supporters, it is likely that a different man would have been
chosen.  It might have been someone who is not politically prominent,
but among the politically prominent people, Bush, Haig, Baker
and Anderson among Republicans, and Mondale, Moynihan and Udall
would have had a reasonable chance.  Most political writers today
are urging reducing the number of primaries and making party and
government officials ex officio delegates to conventions in order
to reduce the effects of the media and give the conventions a wider
choice.

	My proposal is that a jury of 200 randomly chosen citizens
should meet for three months and choose the President after hearing
arguments from the supporters of different candidates.  The intent
is to approximate the effect of each citizen taking three months to
think about who should be President with really good access to
information and the ability to converse with the candidates.  A
smaller jury would permit better discussion at the risk of greater
statistical fluctuation in a priori opinions.

	Another possibility would be to keep the electoral college
but choose it by random selection from Congressmen and members of
state legislatures.

	The anomaly of the electoral college was noted very early
in the nineteenth century.  No party has ever found it important
enough to expend the political capital required to overcome the
preference of the small states for a system that gives them a
slight advantage.