Layers upon layers.

Currently, each state has so many electoral votes, and so they hold an election to see who those electoral college people will vote for. Some states have laws that say the electoral college must vote the way the people said. However, those people do decide who will be president. But, there has never been a time they have gone against what the media has reported as the winner during the election.

So, in theory, we vote for the president indirectly.

However, do the people who we are allowed to vote for taken from the ranks of the people? No. All of them where selected to be presidential candidates well before hand. Any not in "the big club" are not allowed to rise up in the primaries. You can know this because of the number of presidents who have been in the "Skull and Bones" club. And the number of presidents who were part of Bohemian Grove. The odds that this is random would be similar to all the presidents being born on the same day of the year.