Actually there were a number of states in the very early days (and a few holdouts for quite a number of years) where the legislature appointed the electors directly vs. delegating this to popular vote.
In our first four presidential elections, the legislatures appointed presidential electors. Staring in 1804, legislatures began delegating that duty to the voters of the state. By 1844, only South Carolina still had the legislature make the call, and by 1868 that too ended.