This space is usually politics-free. Today I take a diversion from that course to make an argument about a political background from a technical perspective.

One of the best principles of software development is the idea of defensive code.  That we build code (and systems) that expect certain inputs, validate those inputs, process those inputs, and return the expected results.  When we get inputs that don't fit with the expections, our systems have to fail gracefully, limit the damage to other systems, and land in a stable state.

In many ways, a straight democratic process could work.  It's not hard to collect votes nationally, to provide some form of real-time reporting, and announce results in realtime.  The problem with this is the sheer number of vulnerable points.  It means that anyone can inject bad data into the system anywhere - Chicago, perhaps? - and cause changes in the system as a whole... aka changing the overall election results.

In steps the Electoral College...