I recently visited the National Civil War Museum in Harrisburg Pennsylvania. It is very well done and very educational for a foreigner like me. One of the exhibits was about Abraham Lincoln. I learned that he was elected president of the United States on November 6, 1860. Voter turnout was 81.2%, the highest in American history up to that time. Lincoln won the Electoral College with 180 of the 303 votes (152 required for a win). However he received only 39.65 percent of the popular vote. They stated that this caused a public outcry from his opponents that he was not a legitimate president and the the Electoral College system of selecting a President should be changed. However, as history tells us, his presidency changed the course of America as a nation. Fast forward to November 8, 2016; Donald Trump is elected president of the United States with 306 of the 538 votes (270 required for a win). He received 46.42 percent of the popular vote. Again, a public outcry from his opponents that he was not a legitimate president and the the Electoral College system of selecting a President should be changed. Trump is the fifth person in U.S. history to become president while losing the national popular vote.
My question is: if the Electoral Collage voting is such a terrible system, why, in 140 or more years, hasn’t anyone made a move to change it. If, in all these years, no one has cared enough to try and change it, perhaps it is not such a bad system; it seems to have stood the test of time. I am not judging the system as good or bad; I just wish people would stop complaining about it if they are too lazy to try and change it. Live with it or fix it!