The "voting their conscience" notion might sound good in theory, but the reality is that electors aren't chosen for their wisdom or integrity, but mainly on the basis of party loyalty. If they were suddenly no longer bound to vote the will of their state's voters, it would open up the process to all kinds of partisan shenanigans.

As for Hamilton's statement about the presidency not falling to someone "not in an eminent degree endowed with the requisite qualifications,” we sure missed the boat on that this time around!