ABSTRACT
The House of Representatives had just finished its 35th round of balloting and was still unable to decide on a winner in the presidential contest. Few things vexed the framers more than determining how the president should be selected. Only a president who had no electoral incentive to accede to legislative demands would stand firm against legislative encroachments on executive power, and only a president who had no prospect of reelection could be trusted not to corrupt the legislature. The delegates spent much of the latter part of July wrangling over these questions and voting on dozens of different electoral plans, including one that would allow the president to serve “during good behavior,” which essentially meant for life. The convention debated the committee’s proposal for several days, and made only one significant change. The framers’ satisfaction with their creation seemed justified by the nation’s first presidential election, in which George Washington secured the vote of each of the 69 electors.
