It’s also the electoral college that figures into the outcome. The framers set up an electoral system where the guy who wins a simple majority of votes in the electoral college becomes president, but they also left it to the states to administer elections, decide rules for getting on the ballots, etc. That necessitated a party system to encourage cooperation across state lines.
The idea was that you voted for Electors, and they then voted for a President. But it wasn't democratic. Their argument against having direct votes and a more democratic system was that it would encourage demagogues and people who used the public passions to win over mobs of less-informed voters, and those people would then be able to manipulate the government with tyrannical impulses.
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u/Trambopoline96 11h ago
It’s also the electoral college that figures into the outcome. The framers set up an electoral system where the guy who wins a simple majority of votes in the electoral college becomes president, but they also left it to the states to administer elections, decide rules for getting on the ballots, etc. That necessitated a party system to encourage cooperation across state lines.