That adherence to majority rule changes on Jan.20, as it has four other times in our history. While ballots are still being counted, the final tally is likely to find President-elect Donald Trump trailing Hillary Clinton by around 2 million votes; he will be the second of our last three presidents to be elected with less than a majority, indeed less than a plurality, of the popular vote.
That does not make his presidency less legitimate but in a nation that thinks of itself as a beacon for democratic governance, it is nonetheless a jarring statistic. Trump himself has acknowledged that something is askew, telling interviewers he believes future presidents should be chosen by a popular majority.
Trump ran and won under the Electoral College, the product of a deal struck and written into the Constitution more than two centuries ago and effectively refined since then by state laws. It’s time to refine it once again, this time in a way that breaks the dominance of a few “swing” states in our elections and gives every voter in every state an equal voice.
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