John F,
Thank you for your reply. I do realize that Congress was created with an upper and lower house, the upper being the Senate, supposedly a more deliberative body, and the lower house, the House of Representatives, that was designed to be the peoples' house. However, both houses are populated by persons who are elected by the people of their states and are charged, at least in part, with representing the people of their states.
So it seems to me that if the majority of the population resides on the coasts in big cities where people tend to be liberal and democrats, they're likely to have the upper hand in determining the laws of the land and policies of the federal bureaucracy. They'll be able to run rough shod over the people in the urban areas between the coasts. Therefore all the safeguards against that happening are necessary, the electoral college being one of them.