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Originally Posted by Locobot
Sometimes pro-electoral-college arguments state that a candidate for president could win by campaigning in a few key cities. But these arguments are based on the hypothetical situation where candidates are able to get 100% of the vote in any given city they choose, very unrealistic.
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Because in the USA there always have been and there always will be more people living in urban than rural areas, it is important to protect the minority. Of course it's unrealistic to get all of the urban vote--it's also unrealistic to get all of the rural vote. John Kerry won very few counties in this election, but he won most of them big. George Bush had a similar comfortable majority in many of the counties that he won. This means that there's an obvious difference between what urbanites want and what the country hicks want.
So, the forefathers, geniuses that they were, devised a system based on population but also weighted toward those living in rural areas. This helps protect states' rights, an important issue (although it was much more important then).