During the 1787 Constitutional Convention, one of the hardest issues to resolve was how to elect the president. The Founding Fathers debated for months, with some arguing that Congress should pick the president and others insistent on a democratic popular vote.

The Founding Fathers ended up establishing the Electoral College in the Constitution, in part, as a compromise between the election of the president by a vote in Congress and election of the president by a popular vote of qualified citizens. The Electoral College process consists of the selection of the electors, the meeting of the electors where they vote for President and Vice President, and the counting of the electoral votes by Congress.

The Electoral College consists of 538 electors. A majority of 270 electoral votes is required to elect the President. States have the same number of electors as it does Members in its Congressional delegation: one for each Member in the House of Representatives plus two Senators. The District of Columbia is allocated 3 electors and treated like a State for purposes of the Electoral College under the 23rd Amendment of the Constitution. 

Whether or not to keep the #ElectoralCollege is an ongoing debate. Many believe that it should be abolished because it does not represent the popular choice; however, others are of the view that the Electoral College system must remain intact as it represents all segments of American society in a balanced manner.

The question for debate, for U.S. presidential elections should we move to using the popular vote or keep using the Electoral College system?