Every four years the age-old debate over the Electoral College is reignited. Currently, as the competition among the Republican candidates intensifies and the remaining four race to the finish line for the nomination, speculators are turning their attention towards the presidential elections that are just around the corner. Predictably, the legitimacy of the Electoral College is once again under scrutiny. Although the Electoral College was an ingenious compromise established by the framers of the Constitution, the development of two-party politics and the winner-takes-all system led it to defeat its original purpose. When legislators were drafting the presidential selection procedure of the Constitution in 1787, they presented a clever compromise on the issue of direct election. With the new country stretching thousands of miles along the Atlantic coast and poorly connected by transportation or communications, it was impractical if not impossible to distribute information widely enough to allow every citizen to make an informed choice (Kimberling). In a direct election, this lack of knowledge about candidates living in other states would inevitably lead citizens to vote for the candidate they know best. Since larger states have considerably more voters, presidents would be elected not for their political beliefs, but for their place of residence. Given the inability to disseminate information widely, the Fathers compromised by adopting the idea of ​​representation. People up and down the country would vote for local delegates with whom they were familiar. These voters would then elect a president “preeminent in ability and virtue” (Hamilton 333). In designing the Electoral College, the Framers made sure that...... half of the paper ......ve lived up to the ideals of the Framers today. Works Cited Kimberling, William C. “The Electoral College.” Federal Election Commission, May 1992. Web. March 13, 2012. Hamilton, Alexander. “Federalist 68.” The Federalist with the Letters of “Brutus”. Ed. Terence Palla. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2003. 331-334. Print.“Failure in the electoral college”. Editorial. New York Times. November 20, 2008. Web. March 13, 2012. Ray v. Blair. No. 649. Supreme Court of Alabama. April 3, 1952. Web. March 13, 2012. Ross, Kelly. “Outdated Electoral College.” Northern Arizona News. February 6, 2011. Web. March 13, 2012. Kammer, Jerry. “As presidential electors there are ex-governors and activists.” Citizen of Tucson. October 16, 2008. Web. March 13, 2012. Longley, Lawrence D., and Alan G. Braun. The politics of electoral college reform. London: Yale University Press, 1975. Print.