the electoral college don't need to be psychic to know that forgoing the traditional vote during an election cycle would probably collapse the country for some time. If they did it between elections, and it went through the proper channels, the blow would be minor. The republicans almost abolished it decades ago, but were short two democrat votes from passing it. (irony much? lol)
But yeah, if you think a lot of americans are in despair now, imagine the chaos ensuing if the did pick someone else. The end result would be civil unrest and more riots, resulting in home terrorism laws that used pre-crime algorithms on social media to arrest people, and much stricter laws regarding protesting and probably even hate crimes. the system is already in place, they just need a big enough domestic disaster to justify it.
Caption this Meme
