And it was started back when getting from here to there required a horse. So you'd vote locally for someone to represent you, and by the time they get to the final voting place, the candidates could have changed.

And in the final election - we still vote on delegates to the Electoral College. There have been candidates that have one the Popular vote, but lost in the College, in that overall they had enough votes by citizens, but not enough delegates within each state.

It's screwy, but so far no one has actually tried to change it. Seems the loosers are the only ones that really want to change the system.