Read Article 2. Section 1, clauses 2 and 3 of the Constitution. FASCINATING stuff! The founders didn't want the president to be chosen by popular vote, because they feared people would be too easily swayed by populist ideologues and foolish ideas fostered by fear and hatred. (Sound familiar?) Each state is allotted as many Electors as they have representatives in the House and Senate. State legislatures are to choose these elections, any way they see fit, and the way the founders envisioned it, the electors are to vote independently. Bet most conservatives who claim to worship the Constitution don't realize the only federal position that was to be chosen by popular vote was the House. Senators were appointed by state governors and/or legislators, (That was changed by Constitutional amendment in 1917,)and Supreme Court justices are nominated by the president and confirmed by the Senate.
The founders were elitists, who didn't in any way, shape or form want the people to be involved directly in the choosing of leaders. Read the Federalist Papers. Messrs. Hamilton, Madison and Jay all made very strong cases to avoid the "tyranny of the majority," at all costs. It's why I always chuckle when people refer to the US as a "democracy." Democracy is clumsy and cumbersome, inefficient and dangerous. (As brilliant a writer and orator as Lincoln was, his greatest lie was, "government of the people, by the people, for the people." Yep, by design, people DO get a say, but not the final say, and certainly not the direct say. Which is to say our elitist founders engaged in the desperate quest to protect an ignorant, easily-fooled, sheep-like populous from itself.
Article 2, Section 1 is brilliant and elegant, and absolutely lovely. And it'd never work in its purest form, because it's a playground forgraft, bribery and all kinds of other political skulduggery. But before you begin to talk of "democracy," and "the will of the people," you should be well aware that the founders of your country had no use whatsoever for either of those two entities.
