We are aware there are problems in our election system.
For example, Al Gore had over 500,000 more votes than George Bush in the 2000 Presidential Election. (48.38% to 47.87%)
Presidential Election of 2000, Electoral and Popular Vote Summary
This has happened three times before:
1. 1824: Andrew Jackson won both the Popular vote and the Electoral College, but John Quincy Adams still won the election. (Jackson failed to get the requisite number of electors and Congress selected Adams.)
2. 1876: Samuel J. Tilden won the vote but Rutherford B. Hayes won the election. (Hayes had 185 electoral votes to Tilden's 184; Tilden had 4,300,000 while Hayes had 4,036,000.)
3. 1888: Grover Cleveland won the vote but Benjamin Harrison won the election. (Cleveland had 100,000 more votes, but Harrison had 233 electoral votes to Cleveland's 168).
Problem is that
the system was set up that way back when our Constitution was being drafted.
Many of the Founding Fathers were afraid of pure democracy, and wanted a layer of men
"most capable of analyzing the qualities adapted to the station, and acting under circumstances favorable to deliberation, and to a judicious combination of all the reasons and inducements which were proper to govern their choice." (Alexander Hamilton. Fed. Pap. #68) between the common people when electing someone to the office of President. Creating the Electoral College served to both create this layer and to prevent large states from dominating small ones via popular vote alone.
Thus you are not voting for President, but actually voting for Electors equal to the number of Senators and Congressmen your state population allows for.
Aside from this we have all the convoluted rules regarding how to get on a ballot, participate in debates, etc. Throw in the importance of campaign funding, advertising, media coverage, Party rules, etc. Of course our elections system has problems.
Campaign reform is almost an impossibility because those the current system favors continue to hold office and lack motivation to kill the golden goose that keeps them in office.