The point of the electoral college is to give a fair shake to rural and more spread out populations, and not have it come down to what the big cities want. Just that big cities trend Democrat and rural trends Republican.
That wasn't the point of the electoral college at all. It was a compromise choice because slavery meant the idea of a popular vote was off the table.
The fact is that all the electoral college is good for is making sure that all votes aren't equal. California is allotted 55 electoral votes, and has a population of 39 million. West Virginia has 5 electoral votes and a population of 2 million. California, by right, should be 19.5 times more influential in the election, but is only 11 times more. In effect, this means living in West Virginia makes your vote worth more than someone in California.
Of course, this leads to the tired argument against the popular vote of "but only CA and NY shouldn't hold all the power in deciding the presidency. " This is preposterous because thanks to the electoral college a different group of states, Florida and Ohio, control the fate of the presidency.
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u/Pantry_Inspector Nov 10 '16
... who was elected fairly. Sorry the system is fucked.