Question

I need a little help.

Answer 1

Was the Electoral College important to the election of presidents when it was established in the Constitution? Is it still important today?

Answer 2

http://www.archives.gov/federal-register/electoral-college/about.html

This tells you all you need to know!!

Answer 3

Hint, it isn't a place, it is a process ;)

Answer 4

How is this?
Yes, it was important and still is because it is used as a compromise between election of the President by a vote in Congress and election of the President by a popular vote of qualified citizens. This way each candidate has a chance to win the electoral vote from each state, depending on the state’s population the worth of the vote may be higher or lower.

Answer 5

In reality it just distributes the votes properly. The main reason of the college was that it was too hard, before the advancement of technology, to count the popular vote.
Now days it's much easier to do because of the internet and cellular devices. Before they would have to travel from place to place with these vote counts.
It plays a crucial roll though in who is elected as we see in many previous elections. Popular vote is an exact vote count of all Americans.
Without the electoral college:
John Quincy Adams would have lost in the 1824 election.
Rutherford B. Hayes would have lost in the 1876 election.
Benjamin Harrison would have lost in the 1888 election.
George W. Bush would have lost in the 2000 election.
This all would have been different if we had a raw vote count instead of a electoral college.

Answer 6

It is still important. This is arguable both ways.
Your explanation is wonderful @hailyokay but in reality the popular vote means nothing with the Electoral college.