The Founding Fathers strove to construct an election process that would "create a majority that would appear as natural as possible" (Ceaser 34). However, instead of a system of electors, each having two votes, dissenting Founders constructed a more complex "auxiliary plan" of election by the House (Ceaser 34). The electoral system constructed by the Founders was non-partisan and made no plan for nomination of candidates. The system constructed by the Founders to elect a president also made no provision for full popular participation, the "very hallmark" of our current electoral system (Ceaser 41). The ideal candidate to men like James Madison, James Wilson and others was a "strong and independent executive" (Ceaser 43). Any interference from the Congress or States was anathema to these men. Despite such views, those who favored a "strong" executive all advocated some form of popular election when they began to craft the Constitution. However, the Founders stopped short of implementing such a plan.
The Jeffersonian era was colored by debates over the legitimacy of the electoral process as outlined by the Founders. Two central issues were at hand. The first was the belief that a direct non-partisan election was "undemocratic;" and, the second, made by the Constitution's two greatest defenders [Madison and Hamilton], regarding "the system's capacity to promote legitimacy" (Ceaser 75). During this era a heated debate over national parties occurred. The Founders avoided this by having a process of selection based on "reputation" not "issue arousal," and by encouraging the formation of a significant number of minor parties (Ceaser 94). During the Jeffersonian era, two major changes occurred in the election process: 1) the creation of a nominating instrument (the Congressional caucus), and 2) the adoption of the Twelfth Amen
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