The electoral college is a necessity because it prevents massive voter fraud in one state (say, Illinois) from affecting the votes in the other 49 states. It’s essential to maintain a relatively fair election.
So many good comments here! Thanks fellow FReepers.
The EC a great idea for the reasons you mention. The Framers got it right.
What they also got (mostly) right was allowing only landowners to vote. The reason for that was that they wanted to prevent non-contributing members of society from voting themselves benefits that they would take away from the contributing members. Land ownership is probably not a good measure these days, but I would definitely like to bring back the spirit of this idea.
I’d like to see a drastic reduction in the voter rolls. I have no problem with retirees voting if they are retired from productive careers. But there are sound reasons why those on welfare and those who have never worked should not have a vote. It’s basically the same reason that children don’t get to vote. I would also give the vote to spouses of productive workers because they support a working spouse’s career.