I looked back over that bit I wrote and felt it could have been a lot better. You're right, there's rarely been deviation between the popular vote and the elect

I looked back over that bit I wrote and felt it could have been a lot better. You're right, there's rarely been deviation between the popular vote and the electoral. It was envisioned that the electoral college would rarely produce a clear result, and when this system was implemented, many of those state laws you mentioned did not exist. (If I recall correctly, many of them came about after the Gore vs. Bush contest. I do recall direct representation being a cited concern, though I agree that yes, it's original function doesn't seem to have been needed. But I couldn't tell you if that's because it's never been tested, or if it's because of the structure thereof that's prevented a test.