One of the reasons of the EC was the protect the population from electing a president who would be bad for America . Faithless electors would have no purpose otherwise . James Madison Constitutional designer , Federalist Papers author , and former president worried that democratic polities were prone to fits of passion . They might be overcome by prejudice and swayed by populist demagogues . Just as parents owe it to their children to pick a minimally decent baby sitter , so the majority owes it to the rest of us to pick a minimally decent leader . If the majority fails to do soif they support the equivalent of a Chavez or a Hitler both of whom came to power through democratic decisionselectors haven ' t only the right , but the duty to stop them . e l e c t o r a l c o l l e g e i s a n t i d e m ocraticandthatsagoodthing 20160912