States Rights

   Madison was the prime writer of the Consitution.  Madison made no secret that he wanted just a popularly elected Legislative branch of government.  That of course went over like a lead balloon with those sent to the Convention with the idea of just revising the Articles of Confederation.  They were being asked for a central government to whom their state would cede some of their power to for its existence.  Eroding it even further with states rights reduced even more by a Legislative body was like a slap in the face.  What few lower populated states that were in favor of a Constitution there were, they were not in favor of a Legislature determined by population for their state either.  They would be forever at the mercy of the more populated states.
   During the discussions on this issue, no thought at all was given to political parties.  If they had done that, they would have observed that the Electoral College which was the prime consideration would have the effect of reducing the number of political parties there would be.  Even if it had been considered it would not have been viewed as bad thing.  From that perspective they were mainly concerned whether or not that made an undemocratic cabal even more likely.
   So the battles raged back and forth on this issue with the more populous states favoring a legislature that was created by the number of Representatives to be determined by population.  The smaller states were joined by the slave holding states holding out for a yet to be determined number of Representatives but with fixed amount for each state.  At least two, and some times three were considered with the idea of there being even more possibly considered.  To make a long story short, they tentatively decided to have two per state but tabled the issue to look at other less controversial issues.
   Eventually, they had to come back to the issue on how the President and Vice President were selected with the President having the most votes, and the Vice President having the next most votes.  No discussion was even held about political parties.  That is amazing since they were in a process that was already polarizing people on multiple issues.  Eventually it was decided to have two Senators per state who were selected by the States legislative bodies.  As a fig leaf to Madison and the others there would also be Representatives who were apportioned by population who were to be selected by popular vote.
   Now, how are we going to select the President?  That was what created the Electoral College system.  Each state no matter how populous would get two Electoral College votes that matched their number of Senators.  They would also get as many more Electoral College votes as they had Representatives (members of the House).  The Constitution creators left it up to the states how to determine how the electoral college voters were selected.  This was not an over-sight.  They did it to preserve States rights.