Origins of the Electoral College

The Mises Institute reports:

The process was never intended to be democratic. The first presidents were appointed by elites, not elected by the masses. Not until 1820s, with the rise of Andrew Jackson, did popular voting have a role in the selection of presidents.

The modern principle of democracy--repeated in nearly every media account of the Florida vote confusion--holds the president should be elected by majority vote because that will permit government to do what the people want. But the Founders went to great lengths to insulate the activities of their new government from democratic pressures. One of the ways that they tried to limit their government from democracy was by selecting the nation’s chief executive through the use of an electoral college, rather than through direct democratic election.

The electoral college never worked as planned, however, and by 1828, when Andrew Jackson was elected as president, the method of electing the president had almost completely transformed into the democratic system that still exists at the end of the twentieth century.

An article well worth your time.