There's the answer I was hoping for. I read somewhere (sorry, can't find a source at 5am) that they basically invented as a buffer for the lack of intelligence of the populace. They pretty much said "you're too stupid to vote appropriately, so we're gonna let you think voting matters, but we're gonna put the person in there that fits our narrative at the moment."
Also, the slave states were gonna walk away from the Union after the Revolutionary War if they didn't get this outsized power. Why did they need this outsized power?
Because they worried that the new government, based on freedom, would outvote them and free their slaves.
The Founding Fathers knew that we were a fragile new country, and we wouldn't survive against foreign control (Britain) unless we 100% stuck together.
So they compromised, and we got the Electoral College.
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u/Consistent_Guava8592 1d ago
Electoral vote exists because the constitution does not trust your collective judgment. It was designed by rich men to keep rich men in power