America was intended to be a Democratic form of government. After a hard-fought debate, the compromise was to build it as a Democratic Republic. This was done, in Philadelphia during the summer at the City Tavern, over room temperature beer.
A Democratically elected president would be selected by a majority of the popular vote. In a representative government, to protect smaller states, the people vote for an Elector to do the actual voting believing they would vote as they were designated to vote by the people. However, Electors may not be obligated to do so in most cases. In 48 states, it’s winner-take-all. If a candidate in a state loses by one vote, all Electoral votes go to the majority winner.
The founding fathers did not trust a popular vote of the uneducated common, ill-informed people. They couldn’t trust commoners not to vote for a personable, persuasive demigod. Ironically, they devised the Electoral College to assure that a charismatic, yet dangerous lunatic or madman could never be elected.
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