It hasn't worked well, and their motivation has nothing to do with today. Yes, we know that you love lowly educated, Bible-thumping, rural types. 

"There was one difficulty however of a serious nature attending an immediate choice by the people. The right of suffrage was much more diffusive in the Northern than the Southern States; and the latter could have no influence in the election on the score of Negroes. The substitution of electors obviated this difficulty and seemed on the whole to be liable to the fewest objections."

"The People are uninformed, and would be misled by a few designing men."

The Library of Congress. A Century of Lawmaking for a New Nation: U.S. Congressional Documents and Debates, 1774 - 1875
Farrand's Records, Volume 2, p.57.