When you voted , you picked from the presidents that made it onto the ballot IN YOUR STATE . The ballot was filled with other issues for your state . If you were to attempt to change to a popular vote system , it would have to include stripping states of the right to run their own elections , you would have to do national and state elections completely separately . I ' m not saying this is good or bad , but it would be a tremendous political hurdle to changing to a popular vote system . Big vs small gov ' t argument . To understand how the system is the way it is , how it got that way , is to understand the historical development of our country . A more complete understanding of this history will better advise us with how to amend the electoral system , but clearly a return to the basics is in order for many Americans .