@dlowan,
You're right, you don't make sense of it.
The electoral college is a mitigating factor to what the founders called "the tyranny of the masses."
Suppose we have a state known as Conservativeland. In Conservativeland, every town but one has a conservative majority. There are 50 million conservatives in all of these other towns together. However, that town has 50,000,001 people. By one extra person beyond the other total, everyone in the entire state has to obey the whims of that town. It wants to raise taxes by 600%? No problem! Build a bridge that only affects that town with the entire state's income? Sure thing! Never mind that six other towns also need bridges, they don't matter.
Is it right that one town can decide policy for an entire state? Or is it more fair that that one town decides just the county surrounding it, and the other counties combined compare their votes with popular vote mixed in? Wait, don't answer that, I know you won't understand.