text: Electoral votes help avoid run-off elections, by reducing the pressure that might complicate the election.  Say that our government referred to the direct vote system, with a lesser system known as the Electoral College was for comparison, and during the presidential election, there happened to be a problem with the popular votes versus the Electoral College; this complication could be avoided if we used the Electoral College.  This has happened with nixon in 1968 and Clinton in 1992, when they both had only a 43 plurality of the popular votes but were winning in the Electoral College.