[Jim727]

"areas" don't elect officials, obviously. The essential element in this discussion is that the system is a compromise. To allow concentrations of citizens to have absolute (or nearly absolute) control over the election is contrary to the fundamental principle that *all* citizens have rights. The people in Iowa, for example, do not exist just to put food on the tables of New York, for example. At it's extreme that would become a feudal system.

The electoral college forces public servants (a concept you don't hear much about any more) to pay attention to the farmers as well as to the city dwellers. Nobody has so much influence that the rest of the population can be ignored, and nobody has so little influence that they become irrelevant or serfs. Not perfect, but a pretty good compromise, I think.