What does separating the two do ? <| sep |> Looks like you need to do some reading . From Wikipedia , but feel free to check the citations if you don ' t believe itAlexander Hamilton described the framers ' view of how electors would be chosen , A small number of persons , selected by their fellowcitizens from the general mass , will be most likely to possess the information and discernment requisite to such complicated . The founders assumed this would take place district by district . That plan was carried out by many states until the 1880 s . For example , inMassachusettsin 1820 , the rule stated the people shall vote by ballot , on which shall be designated who is voted for as an Elector for the district . In other words , the people did not place the name of a candidate for a president on the ballot , instead they voted for their local elector , whom they trusted later to cast a responsible vote for president . Some states reasoned that the favorite presidential candidate among the people in their state would have a much better chance if all of the electors selected by their state were sure to vote the same way a general ticket of electors pledged to a party candidate . So the slate of electors chosen by the state were no longer free agents , independent thinkers , or deliberative representatives . They became voluntary party lackeys and intellectual nonentities . Once one state took that strategy , the others felt compelled to follow suit in order to compete for the strongest influence on the election . WhenJames Madisonand Hamilton , two of the most important architects of the Electoral College , saw this strategy being taken by some states , they protested strongly . Madison and Hamilton both made it clear this approach violated the spirit of the Constitution . According to Hamilton , the selection of the president should be made by men most capable of analyzing the qualities adapted to the station of president . According to Hamilton , the electors were to analyze the list of potential presidents and select the best one . He also used the term deliberate . Hamilton considered a prepledged elector to violate the spirit of Article II of the Constitution insofar as such electors could make no analysis or deliberate concerning the candidates . This is to say nothing of the fact that their reasons for creating the EC are obsolete with today ' s technology , but even so the current execution , particularly the winnertakeall system , is not even close to what the framers had in mind . It ' s even worth more specifically noting that Madison preferred a popular vote , but thought it would be difficult because of trying to factor in slaves . Some delegates , including James Wilson and James Madison , preferred popular election of the executive . Madison acknowledged that while a popular vote would be ideal , it would be difficult to get consensus on the proposal given the prevalence ofslaveryin the SouthThe electoral college is a perversion of any attempt at democracy in our era , representative or otherwise , for a single federal official , and I would be saying the same thing even if the election outcome was reversed . If the EC were effective at anything it tried to do , states would use a smaller scale version of the system to elect their governors .