First and foremost , our constitution established us as a nation of states , not a nation of people . That can be changed , although the wisdom of doing so is debatable . To argue what would have been after the fact is silly , though . Consider a football game in which one team wins by scoring more points , then debating who should have won based upon total offensive yardage . Both teams playing for points would likely look different than both teams playing for yardage , and their strategies would have been changed significantly . And so would it be with the presidential election . If it were to be decided upon popular vote , the candidates would have campaigned in a far different manner , and in different areas . As it was , both strategies were to win the electoral college votes , one of them won and one lost .