I'm not necessarily defending it, but our government is rife with checks and balances, and even if your Civics teacher didn't talk about it, many of them are intended to check the stupidity of the populace. The fact that this is a republic and not a democracy is one of them. Many senators often vote ways in Congress that they know their consituents would not like, but do it anyway. This is just another example of that. Of course, I'm not sure what's there to check the potential stupidity of the elector.