This is a free example essay on History of Electoral College:
The constitutional Convention was considering a few different processes of electing a president. The first idea to elect a president was to have Congress choose the president, but some people didn’t like this idea, because they felt that it would lead to disagreement and overall conflict in Congress with people getting their feelings hurt. Some people thought that corruption and foreign powers would step in and get in the way, and some people thought that the balance between the legislative and executive branch would be unstable, so the idea was dismissed.

The second idea brought forth was to make the State legislatures in charge of choosing the president, but it was also dismissed. People were afraid that if this were to happen the president would have the state legislatures disobey federal authority to win.

Having the president be elected by a direct popular vote was the third idea. This was dismissed for fear of people voting for the person they liked personally the most rather than any candidate that was outside of their state. “…. People would vote for a ‘favorite son’ from their own state or region.” Says William C. Kimberling. (2000; p 1)

A “Committee of Eleven” in the Constitutional Convention brought a system for presidential election forth. It was an indirect election by a college of electors. This also became the first design of the Electoral College. State legislatures were responsible for the selection of the Electors, and neither members of Congress or employees of the federal government could serve as an Elector so a balance between the legislative and executive branch could take place. (more…)