Let me run through an example to show the absurd result the California popular vote model could give us.

Assume that the 2016 results in every state Trump won remained the same. Now add to his vote total a one-vote victory margin in every state Clinton won except just five states: California, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts and New York. That would subtract 2,636,017 votes from Clinton’s total, which would still give her a 232,642-vote majority of total votes. So, Trump would have won 45 states and the District of Columbia representing 74 percent of Americans, which would give him a 413-125 Electoral Vote win. Yet, under the California popular vote model, Clinton would still have won the presidency by 232,642 votes…

Arguably, you can conclude that Democratic states are simply far less politically diverse than Republican states. You can also conclude that a Republican presidential winner, as Hamilton noted, must win over a larger set of more politically diverse states under the Electoral College than a Democratic winner must secure under the California popular vote model. If you think our House is divided today, imagine how much more divided it would be if the president could secure election simply by decisively winning just five heavily politically homogenous states, with the rest of the states being relegated to second-class status.