American will elect the 46th president of the United States on November 3, 2020. As the election will take place at the time of the major pandemic, the current US presidential election is the center of attention. The news about voting is everywhere across the media. Although everyone is aware of the 2 presidential nominees, who are Donald Trump and Joe Biden, it is essential to understand American’s complicated electoral college.

The system of voting originated from the US history of Democracy. The past French Diplomat Alexis de Tocqueville ? the Author of “Democracy in America” ? compiled an analysis that compared the difference between democracy in France and in America. In France, Democracy began when the Monarchy already existed. The King’s authority was chosen according to the citizens' majority votes. The France citizens had the right to pick their authority figures and there was no dissatisfaction with the government concentration. On the other hand, the Americans escaped from Great Britain’s monarchy and concreted their own independent country by forming various states. Each state that possessed certain sovereignty distributed some of their power to the central government. Although both France and the USA are based on the same principle of democracy, the nature of each is opposing the other.

The 13 states in the USA often gathered at the constitutional convention to process certain compromisations and negotiations in order to satisfy varying interests according to each state. The states were of varying sizes: some states had a higher population than others. At this time, there was a disagreement about the number of congress members that represented each state. Clearly, the state with the higher population had the advantage of taking the congress positions. As a solution, the Senate and House of Representatives formed. The Senate chose 2 senators from each state and the House of Representatives was composed of elected members in proportion to the total population. The members from the Senate and the House of Representatives of certain states voted for the president. These days, the process is different. It is the colleges who vote, instead of the Senate and House of the Representatives.

The election system is based on the principal from the “Founding Fathers”. Their way of thinking was based on individualism and decentralization. This method placed an emphasis on different states employing their own beliefs and philosophies while voting. However, as all the congressmen worked together in Washington DC, there was the potential issue of people voting for figures according to whichever close groups had formed. In order to avoid such a concern, the US formed the current “Electoral college” system.

The last founding father’s principle of democracy led to the current system of election. It is important to note that the US emphasizes its unique features when coming up with systems.

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