[true_religion]

In practice, the US president is directly elected by the population. Every state has a law declaring that their electors (the representatives that really 'elect' the president) will follow the majority vote counted within that state.

Granted, if you look at wikipedia it'll say its an indirect system, but that's only a technicality.

[tomp]

Ok, then I was wrong. I've previously heard that in theory, the electors could change their mind, so that's why the parties only nominated their most senior, most trusted members for electors.

[selectodude]

You're technically right (the best kind of right) but in practice, that hasn't happened in probably 250 years.