Don't dump the Electoral College. Fix it.

So instead of eliminating the Electoral College, perhaps we should reform it the way Nebraska and Maine have done, and apportion all but two of each state’s electoral votes by congressional district. Combined with a national reform to eliminate gerrymandering (as has been already been achieved in Iowa), this would mean competition for votes all across the country. Any serious candidate for the presidency would have to run a truly national campaign, and speak to the country as a whole, not just to those who already speak and think the way they do.

The Electoral College came about as part of a compromise to enhance the electoral clout of slave states. Because slaves counted as three-fifths of a free man for apportionment purposes, via the Electoral College voters in slave states “counted” more than voters in free states. But the problem here is slavery, not the compromise. After all, today states with more minors, felons, and others not eligible to vote — including immigrants who are here illegally — get a similar boost for apportionment purposes, and that is generally regarded as more just than not counting them at all.

The more important point, though, is that the original compromise was about keeping the union together in the face of deep and largely unresolvable disagreement. Equality of representation was sacrificed in the service of that goal. That is the kind of compromise that every successful political system makes, because unless the viability of the system is maintained, other concerns like making that system more fair can never be addressed.