The Electoral College is there because the States were the sovereign units. A President had to be elected by a majority of the several States’ electors, not by “the people.” By the same token, Senators were to be elected by State legislatures, not “the people.” The only group to be elected directly by popular vote was the House of Representatives.
“The only group to be elected directly by popular vote was the House of Representatives.”
And even with the corruption of a ridiculously small number of “Representatives” that we have, they’re still by district, and not even the whole state (Except, of course, Wyoming, since it only has one).
The founding fathers were not perfect or infallible. The only reason the electoral college exists is they were deadlocked between those who wanted Congress to choose the President (like how state legislatures would choose Senators) and those who wanted the President to be directed elected via popular vote (like how Congressmen would be elected). I don't think either scenario would have worked on a national scale, especially with the size the country is today. If Congress choose the President, Pelosi would have taken control of this country in 2006 and we'd probably still have a RAT President now because Republicans didn't win the Senate in 2010. If it was direct popular vote, New York City, L.A., Chicago, etc. would pick our President for the rest of America.
The electoral college system compromise was probably the best option (have the people INDIRECTLY elect the President by choosing electors representing that person), but it too has serious problems. As others have noted on this thread, most states choose electors based on statewide popular vote. That "winner take all" system just inflicts the popular vote problem on a small statewide scale, as big cities can outvote the rest of the state (a perfect example being here in Illinois where Pat Quinn was elected to govern "all of Illinois" by just winning 3 out of 102 counties!) The electoral college could use reforms. As at least three other posts on this thread have mentioned, the idea system would be to allocate electoral votes by each congressional district. That's currently only used in Maine and Nebraska. (under that system, Bush would have still won in 2000, since he carried more Democrat districts than Gore carried Republican districts). It would allow regions of the state in the minority to be represented in the electoral college (especially important if the "winner" only gets 51% of the state's votes), and it would prevent the mainstream media from calling an entire state based on early xit polls in some urban area.
If we get politicians to stop gerrymandering congressional districts and instead have impartial computer drawn districts, combined with an electoral college system based on those districts, we'd far better system than we have today for electing a president (and if we can fix our primary system so Iowa and N.H. stop picking our nominees for the rest of us!)
The "original constitution" may have specified that the House of Reps. was the only federal body that voters could elect and defeat from office, but that was a mistake, IMO. If it were up to me, voters would be able to vote on retention of supreme court judges and other federal judges. That would take a constitutional amendment but I think this reform would be better than what they came up with in 1788. Freepers want to talk about "states rights", well look at the states can elect their judges, look at the ones where the judges are appointed by political bureucrats for life, and ask yourself which system works better?
The founding fathers were very good men and had a lot of great ideas. But they were not gods and not everything they wrote down in 1788 is perfect and must never be altered. People used to be concerned that Catholics in this country worshipped the Pope and thought he was perfect and never erred. I've met a Catholic who feels that way about the Pope. But I have seen freepers who feel that way about the founding fathers and the government that existed in 1789. I find that troubling.