You should know that when you cast your vote for president, it’s really going to an ‘elector’

There is a great misconception among the American public concerning the nation’s presidential election.

Many are under the impression that they are directly voting for the president of their choice. Not quite. To put it simply, voters are actually voting for ‘electors’, who in turn, votes for the presidential candidates.

One may rightly whistle and wonder why there exists such a peculiar mechanism in the first place.

There were several reasons behind the existence of these ‘electors’, but foremost in the minds of our Founding Fathers was the threat of a foreign-backed dictatorship or the reemergence of some form of royalty.

A naive and unsophisticated populace spread over the vast tracts of the original thirteen colonies was presumed to be open to easy manipulation by regional or foreign influences, a movement that could swell out to neighboring areas before anyone in the capital, Philadelphia, would even be aware of it.

In such an event, the threat of coercion or simply the psychological effects of a perceived dominant figurehead would translate to a flawed presidential election.

Having just declared themselves independent from the clutches of the all-powerful British monarchy headed by King George III, the Founding Fathers were wary of exposing themselves to such a threat.

There is also of course the matter of over 40,000 British soldiers, together with another 30,000 odd German mercenaries, that were present the country; a force significant enough to lay the ground works for a future monarchist movement.

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