I think they should go by popular vote ! beacuse it gives people a chance to vote for the right thing or what they think is right .

So thats a popular vote for kennedy would not have actually gone to kennedy .

It happend in 2000, when gore had more popular votes than bush yet fewer electoral votes, but that was the first time since 1888.

obama recevied 61.7 percent of the popular votes cast for him and romney .... Because almost all states award electoral votes on a winner-take-all basis, even a very slight plurality in a state creates a landslide electoral-vote victory in that state. A tie in the nationwide electoral vote is possible because the total number of votes-538-is an even number, but it is highly unlikely ....

nixon in 1986 and clinton in 1992 both had only a 43 percent plurality of the popular votes, while winning a majority in the elections .

there  is pressure for run-off elections when no candidate wins a majority of the vote cast;that pressure, which would greatly complicate the presidential election process, is reduced by the electroral college, which invariably produces a clear winner....

knowing their vote will have no effect ,they have less incentive to pay attention to the campaign than they would have if the president were picked by popular vote ...!