The founding population of the United States was just 2.5 million (approx.) in 1776. Revolutionaries required caution in selecting and assembling representatives to cast votes for the people comprising the real power of the nation. The tradition of choosing a 'college' of electors to provide the actual votes that elect the President was a provident choice in light of the real geopolitical context of the age. Voters were generally landowners not as volatile or unknown as some voters enlisted today, yet electors provided another screen to direct the United States upon such a course as was agreeable to the founding revolutionaries. Protestant white males that owned landed were initially the most enfranchised class. <?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />
In 1787, Article 1 of the Federal Constitution was written such that "the Electors in each State shall have the Qualifications requisite for Electors of the most numerous Branch of the State Legislature". Article 6 overturned any state bans on Jews, Catholic or other religious sects "[N]o religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States."
The unreliability of 18th communications and travel, loosely time presentation of voters to cast ballots and other practical factors coupled with the desire of the more educated voters to install a firewall for the new Republic from fraud and mass social errors in political judgment made the ultimate electors selected by political parties and popular opinion zeitgeist buffer.
The founders got the idea of an electoral college from several sources including that of the Holy Roman Empire (962 - 1806) in which German princes could elect their own king who would then become the Emperor. There are a number of practical reasons why direct popular election and counting of votes wasn't practical in prior historical eras, and not all of those reasons are invalid today though they may have a modern newness to them; cheating at the ballot box, voter fraud and political brainwashing or trick events may corrupt the political expression of voters creating an opportunity for the selection of a malefactor to the Presidency. The electors can act as a last-minute buffer against corruption of election results and protect the public from deceit.
America was a frontier nation with substantial issues regarding vote collection, literacy and so forth. Today the United States is assaulted by a global broadcast media, flooded with illegal aliens and targeted by first-generation political plants and opportunists with the goal of wresting control of the government toward foreign and special interests.
http://www.archives.gov/federal-register/electoral-c ollege/faq.html#history
American Presidential elections are 'ruled' de facto by popular votes in the modern era. The electors selected by the people and political parties of each state traditionally vote with the results of the popular vote of each state though they have some provision to vote independently. There may be penalties for voting independently in several states. The first idea for the existence of an American electoral college is found in article II of the Constitution of the United States...
Article II
"Section 1. The executive Power shall be vested in a President of the United States of America. He shall hold his Office during the Term of four Years, and, together with the Vice President, chosen for the same Term, be elected, as follows Each State shall appoint, in such Manner as the Legislature thereof may direct, a Number of Electors, equal to the whole Number of Senators and Representatives to which the State may be entitled in the Congress: but no Senator or Representative, or Person holding an Office of Trust or Profit under the United States, shall be appointed an Elector."
"The Congress may determine the Time of choosing the Electors, and the Day on which they shall give their Votes; which Day shall be the same throughout the United States"
The 538 electors of the President and Vice-President of the United States are equal to the number of U.S. Senators (100) and members of the U.S. House of Representatives (438). States are given electors equal to their U.S. Congressional delegation's number. Alaska for instance has two U.S. Senators and one U.S. Representative so it has three electors. The twelfth amendment of the United States Constitution enhanced the criteria and definition of the electors. January 6, 2009 the electors will give a joint session of congress their votes determining who the new administration executives are.
http://www.archives.gov/federal-register/electoral-c ollege/faq.html#history
Most Americans do not know U.S. history well enough to understand why or how the United States developed its political institutions such as the Electoral College. Elementary education in the United States does not cover the background of the foundation of the nation so far as the Electoral College's history. Beyond the state of Virginia most Americans do not know much about Thomas Jefferson's background as a candidate for President on the Republican ticket.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democratic-Republican_P arty
Like a 'reality' television show in which the audience votes for an ultimate winner based on the popularity of a character the election of a President has transmogrified into the selection of the most popular individual regardless of character or experience. It would be a far better thing to elect a fat, ugly, kind hearted, brilliant and fearless leader capable of rectifying the nation's wrongs environmentally, economically and militarily rather than a model able to pose at parties with panache for the cameras crews of global corporate b.m. syndicates. It would be equally wrong to reject a handsome brilliant, hardworking individual in favor of a fat, ugly, stupid yet popular and treacherous sort of candidate even if they are short.
Americans in the 20th century began to form an opinion that abolishing the Electoral College would be a good idea. A direct popular election for the Presidency would advantage heavily populated states and negate the state demographic representational tradition of the United States transforming it in to a more volatile republic subject to propaganda and current events rather than good judgment.
Since the advent of the television era Americans have increasing voted for those with superficial star quality and decreasingly for solid political experience. In the era of global corporatism with wealthy global elites pulling the strings of television and American viewers, a popular 'face' with minimal experience can will mollify the public well as their sovereignty is subverted and outsourced. In the fall and winter of 2008-2009 more than a million jobs will be lost, banks and auto makers are demanding federal financial contributions nearing a trillion dollars and in the long run this is another way of downgrading U.S. workers because cars can be produced cheaper overseas by the major manufacturers in the U.S.A. and imported here for sale to McDonalds hourly low-wage workers without health or retirement benefits much less job security. Those same Americans will pay interest on the bail outs to auto producers and banks so they can better be wage slaves buying fossil fueled vehicles that enslave them basically for life.
One should not be biased against the handsome and brilliant of course when it does arrive to lead an ignorant people passing in eternal recurrence through turnstiles and revolving doors of shops and showrooms regardless of where the profit goes, instead one should head the new ideas to pave the streets with photon collecting substances and place super-conductor hydrogen cooled lines underneath and demand low cost electric commuting vehicles from American auto producers. One of the basic problems of a democracy is in the right selection of the best political leaders. Wisdom or anagnorisis (a transformative insight about wisdom) of the electorate is difficult to achieve, the public will vote against their best interests quite often simply because they haven't had the opportunity to learn as much as is needed for a good judgment to be made politically. One would not want popular opinion to form a medical diagnosis, but only to recognize political mal-conditions existing such that a medical expert could be selected to diagnose and solve the malady.
The electors are not given the task to rule independently for the selection of a President and Vice-President, and historically 99% of votes cast by electors have been in conformity with the political rules and votes of respective states. Each state may have their own formula for deciding who becomes and elector and how they may vote. Most state have a winner-take-all electoral tradition in which the winner of the election gets 100% of the Electoral College votes. A method to make the Electoral College move closer to conformity with the popular vote would be to award votes in each state in proportion to the votes cast by the people. That would permit an approximation of the electoral votes nationally being proportionally representational to the national popular votes.