That's right, you have it in print. Print it out and frame it...
Either that or I have too much time in my hands...
In Sunday's Washington Post, there's an article in the Outlook section that describes why we have an Electoral College.
http://washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A64979-2000Nov11.html
Basically, it says that because most of the South's population were slaves and thus not citizens, they could not vote and the South would be at a severe disadvantage. What was being considered were "regional interests, state jealousies, fear, and loathing".
Interesting enough, it is up to the states to decide how the popular vote should be reflected in the electoral votes, and that doesn't require amending the Constitution. However, 48 states use the "winner-take-all" system which awards ALL of the electoral votes to the winner of the popular vote, leaving nothing for the others.
So with regards to
Apollo, you could draw the conclusion that the Founders didn't want the average citizen to choose but I think that is a personal conclusion; it was not the underlying goal driving the decision to use the Electoral College.
Ristik: So are you saying the parties most likely already pick their people and then the general public votes on the parties, knowing the choices?