I was listening to the radio the other day and they decided to explain the historical significance of the electoral college.

Basically, it exists and we are the only ones who use it due to one incredible lack of foresight by the Founding Fathers. They assumed that there would never be political parties in the US. So, the equivalent of the current 270 vote majority would never occur. Regular people would nominate several contenders they would like to see in the presidency, and because a lot of random names would never get any kind of majority, Congress would end up choosing among the highest ranking of these (as they would do in a situation today if it came down to a 269-269 split) to ascend to the Presidency.

It's a weird system, but it makes perfect sense if political parties don't exist. The people bring up suggestions, and then the people they chose to represent them would make the final decision, supposedly picking the wisest and most competent person to run the country.

Political parties, as usual, screwed the whole thing up.