Does Every Vote Count?

While I'm waiting for some more guest bloggers, here's a political/government question that might be asked in a class. During the elections we hear the phrase, "every vote counts." It seems that in most elections this is true. I wonder, though, how that works with our electoral college. In our homeschool co-op last spring we taught a short government course. It was the first time I understood how the electoral college works. However, I'm still trying to figure out why we have it. Why is popular vote not enough? If we have a certain number of voters who make that final vote based on popular vote, is it truly effective? What happens if the popular vote is divided equally among 3 candidates, but your state has 10 people in the electoral college? Does every vote truly count then?

I don't know but I'm hoping someone who speaks peoplese (vs. legalese) can answer this for me!

Any volunteers?