"The electoral college was..." Lol. No, it was designed to connect the federal government's system for electing a president to the states' systems without having to tell the states how to pick electors, full stop. Federalist No. 68 does indicate that electors should consider the character and suitability for office, but that is not in the constitution. In most early elections, electors were selected by state legislatures. Popular votes for president of the US only started in a large number of states in the 1824 election, which happens to be the same election in which states went to the winner-take-all method of awarding electors. In fact, the problem we're seeing with the electoral college in these popular vote-electoral college mismatch is that all but two states use the winner-take-all method of awarding electors. Clinton could have overcome this by campaigning in more rural and rust-belt states.