April 5, 2019 --

There is a move to do an end run around the Constitution and effectively make the Electoral College meaningless.

Election to the presidency is based on a majority of Electoral College votes, not the popular vote. Had the popular vote decided the 2016 election, Hillary Rodham Clinton would be president today.

Clinton's popular plurality was made possible by her vote totals in New York and California, states where the Republican Party has become moribund.

A plan is underway to require that individual states give their Electoral College votes to persons pledged to support the winner of the nation's popular vote. This move would end the significance of the federal character of the union, not to mention amending the Constitution's method of electing a president without reference to the amendment process. This move, in short, would set candidates further apart from the smaller states than Clinton proved to be in 2016