Yes, generally speaking. Direct voting was intentionally discouraged by some of the founders, to prevent the "tyranny of the majority". The goal was to force a

Yes, generally speaking. Direct voting was intentionally discouraged by some of the founders, to prevent the "tyranny of the majority". The goal was to force a candidate to appeal to as many types of people as possible, and not allow someone to just focus on what the simple majority of people want. It could be argued that in this election the electoral college technically performed the function it was originally designed to do -- that is, give rural areas a small but possible opportunity to out-compete urban ones in an election despite having less total citizens.