(NEXSTAR) – This November, millions of Americans will head to polling stations across the country to cast their votes — not for president or vice president, mind you, but for a slate of electors who will, in turn, hopefully vote for the candidates of our choice.

These electors make up the Electoral College, and the votes they cast in January ultimately determine who runs the country for the next four years.

The system by which a group of electors decides the outcome of the election — rather than the popular vote — was born out of the 1787 Constitutional Convention and established in Article II, Section 1 of the Constitution. It was also very much a “compromise” between attendees, according to the National Archives. Delegates at the convention debated the subject for months, with some opposing the idea of Congress selecting the next president (for fear of corruption, partly) and others pushing back on the notion of........

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