Why not just use popular votes in an election?

Answer 1

Sshhhh: You mustn't mention such things. You'll want to live in a democracy next ! Just elect who they want you to and everthing will be ok, you read it here first ! The very idea............. yes, of course I am being facetious. It's my belief that we all vote (Whether we want to or not, you have to vote irrespective) & all the votes get counted and then there is a winner & that is it. And that illustrates the problem: who and how is the winner then decided ? & then all those that didn't vote for the winner want their slice...... & so it goes on. Maybe, as I suggest we are all just as well off voting for who they, the powers that be, want us to. Anyway it doesn't matter: Whoever you vote for the government gets elected.

ANSWER: Out of tyranny rises democracy. God save the republic! The Constitution of the United States of America provides for a republican form of government and when electing Presidents provides for an electoral college to do the electing. It used to be, until the XVII Amendment was passed, that U.S. Senators were appointed by the House of Representatives. These quirks of the Constitution strike people today as wholly undemocratic and it speaks volumes to the wisdom of the people. It is, of course, undemocratic and pointedly so. The United States federal government was formed to better protect the rights of the individual and there is no greater threat to an individual than the threat of mob rule. Presidents too closely resemble kings and a populist president would be more than our republic could bear. Listen to people and how willing they are to give up "some" of their rights to be better protected. This is why majority rule has no legal validity under the United States Constitutional government. The majority can not vote my rights away, thank God for that! The notion that the hallmark of freedom is a free election where one man gets one vote is a fallacy. Voting is not freedom it is in fact a transferral of inherent political power to elected officials. Many elected officials, appointees by these elected officials and a multitude of civil servants will make arguments about how we the people have made a social contract and have "surrendered" some of our rights in order to have a more perfect union. There is nothing perfect about a union where people are required to surrender their rights. The people do not surrender their rights, they grant governments political power in order to protect the rights of the people. What about voting has made any one of us free? Voting too many times is nothing more than a useless distraction from the very real errors our governments are making. Voting is one way to affect change. It is a very limited way of changing things. Our own personal effort will accomplish far more in terms of change than any government will. Let's not wait for populist Presidents and majority rulers to make our lives better. Let's just make them better ourselves, with out government intrusion and without mob rule interference.

Answer 2

Because the founders, rightly, did not trust the mob. Demagogues could convince the people to vote them into office as has happened before in state history. The Electors of the Electoral College are usually committed in their votes, but they are not required to vote anything but on the evidence of the best candidate for the Presidency.

I think with some of the candidates of late the Electoral College will be around for a while. An educated electorate is necessary and religious ideologues, creationists, anti-vaccine people, new age nonsense ,to name a few, does not represent an educated electorate.