What are the benefits to the US Electoral College system?

Boldizzle@lemmy.world to Asklemmy@lemmy.ml – 140 points –

So I'm a New Zealander and I have a pretty good idea on how the electoral college system works but it honestly sounds like something that can be easily corrupted and it feels like it renders the popular vote absolutely useless unless I'm totally missing something obvious?

So yeah if someone could explain to me what the benefits of such a system are, that would be awesome.

Edit - Thanks for the replies so far, already learning a lot!

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It’s important to remember that the drafters of the constitution were a bunch of slavers and slavery profiteers

FTFY

In many ways, yes. There were also abolitionists and abolition sympathizers among the framers. It was a complicated set of individuals and the resulting constitution was complicated as well. It’s a document that simultaneously enshrines liberty and white supremacy. There’s a real Jekyll and Hyde nature to American democracy.

Liberty for property owners, white supremacy also for property owners. It was a bourgeois revolution.

Even the abolitionists were the "after I'm dead" and "back to Africa" kind of abolitionists.