The authors of the Constitution did not want larger States (e.g., higher population density) to dominate the smaller states in a National election. This is along the lines of equal representation in the Senate and weighted representation in the House - the sum of which gives you the electoral votes in each State. If it was strictly popular vote, then you would see candidates pandering to the northeast and the west coast, basically ignoring everything in between. They wanted to prevent candidates from buying elections by pandering to the high density areas. < cynical on >Of course now they pander to all groups< cynical off >

>I found this on http://www.archives.gov/federal_register/electoral_college/index.html and it did not explain to me why we have it in the first place. Why isn't the election by popular vote? States do not elect governers according to counties, whe do we elect the president by states?
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>Why do we still have the Electoral College?
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>The Electoral College process is part of the original design of the U.S. Constitution. It would be necessary to pass a
>Constitutional amendment to change this system.
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>Note that the 12th Amendment, the expansion of voting rights, and the use of the popular vote in the States as the
>vehicle for selecting electors has substantially changed the process.
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>Many different proposals to alter the Presidential election process have been offered over the years, such as direct
>nation-wide election by the People, but none have been passed by Congress and sent to the States for ratification. Under
>the most common method for amending the Constitution, an amendment must be proposed by a two-thirds majority in both
>houses of Congress and ratified by three-fourths of the States.
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