Why should you have electoral college?

Answer 1

There is still debate over why the US has an electoral college and whether it serves any useful purpose. As I see it, when the US Constitution was originally written, democracy was an experimental form of government with very little track record, and a number of safeguards were included, in case the general public were to make terrible decisions. So if the voters choose a really bad Presidential candidate, the electors in the electoral college theoretically can override them and choose someone else. Of course, this presumes that the electors themselves are better chosen than the Presidential candidate, which is an uncertain proposition. But the Founding Fathers were used to living in a society in which people of ability and accomplishment would automatically dominate their fellow citizens and would be chosen as electors. They did not foresee how the position of elector would eventually become just a minor form of political patronage, used to reward campaign workers.