Whoever thought of it was a genius for his time.
RE: Whoever thought of it was a genius for his time.
Without the electoral college, we would not even have a United States of America. The smaller states refused to join the union for fear that their voices will be minimized by the bigger states of NY, PA and MA. The Electoral College was developed in order to address the concerns of the other states.
The electoral college is the fundamental bastion of the original federalist conception of what the States were to be in the coming Union. Along with the provision that senators were to be selected by the States( not the people per se.) The States were to elect the President, and the Senate. The people were to select the House. And thats it.