The Electoral College System.
The Constitution provides for a presidential election among the states.
Each state is granted a certain number of representatives, called electors, to cast votes on its behalf.
This national vote is the vote of the Electoral College.
The Electoral Count Act of 1887, currently provides an election timeline: Election Day is the Tuesday following the first Monday in November in any given presidential election year.
Each state certifies a slate of electors based upon the outcome of its popular vote, whom assemble in their state on the first Monday after the second Wednesday in December.
The electors cast the votes that officially determine who will be the next President of the United States.
Congress meets in joint session to count these votes on the following January 6.
You see, the founding generation did not intend to create a direct democracy.
Actually, the Founders deliberately created a republic that would incorporate a spirit of compromise and deliberation into decision-making.
This would allow them and the next generations to achieve two potentially conflicting objectives: avoid "tyranny of the majority" which is inherent in pure democratic systems, whilst allowing the "sense of the people" to be reflected in the new American government.
A republic government, organized on federalist principles, would allow the delegates to achieve the most difficult of all tasks: enabling large and small sovereign states to live peacefully alongside each other.
Explanation:
You see,
the authors of the Constitution had studied the history of many failed democratic systems, and they strove to create a different form of government.
James Madison, delegate from Virginia, argued that unfettered majorities such as those found in pure democracies tend toward tyranny.
So instead he decided to make it a republic and representative democracy.
