[12.20.11] The Electoral College

Facts
1)"The existence of the electoral college usually undermines third parties, which are unlikely to win electoral votes...."
2) The election-of-a-candidate-who-lost-the-popular-vote has happened four times so far.
3) "Some seven hundred proposed amendments have been introduced in Congress over the last two centuries in an effort to reform or abolish this system."
4) The Eighteenth amendment extended Congress' power to regulate interstate commerce in addition to "at least one aspect of intrastate commerce as well."
5) "The law cannot prevent a candidate from voluntarily withdrawing from the race, nor can it prevent individual electors from changing their votes once he has given permission to change sides."
6) Some people say that the public will probably vote for the other candidate if one candidate wishes to get rid of the electoral college (it was created by the Founding Fathers, so that candidate would not get many votes.... "against the Founders' wishes")
7) 10 states "as of the year 2000 account for fifty-four percent of the US population..."
8) "The Supreme Court has repeatedly declared since Baker v. Carr in 1962 that one person-one vote must prevail at the state and local level, the Constitution effectively bars it at the federal."
9) George W. Bush was the first Southern conservative since before the Civil War.
10) The many small states that "benefit disproportionately from the Electoral College have made it plain that they will never consent to the slightest alteration [to the electoral college]."

Questions
1) Do many people want to get rid of the electoral college?
2) What is the purpose of the electoral college, then? Does this mean that the popular vote does not count?
3) Electors (from the electoral college, right?) are allowed to change their votes?
4) How would the Founding Fathers change the electoral college if they saw how the elections worked today?
5) How effective was Hillary Clinton on persuading people on her views about the electoral college?

I feel that the electoral college should be abolished. Like the "most Americans" mentioned in the beginning of the reading, I was very surprised to find out that the president is elected by electors; I had thought that he or she was voted by popular vote.