Well the popular vote of those states is where I got my number from. That didn’t even touch the larger electoral college issue overall.
The answer is: The founders didn’t trust direct ‘popular vote’ democracy. The electoral college is supposed to be people who are the best of the country - heroes, paragons of their field, intellectuals etc. They envisioned a system where someone like Trump would actually be kept out of the office - because smart people wouldn’t fall for populist rhetoric. What we have seen though, is that instead states abdicated this duty to the parties, and as such the voting is no longer based on conscience or what is best for the country, but instead party lines. Heck some states even made it illegal for the electoral college voter to change a vote (if that’s even legal remains to be seen).
Frankly this last election proved it’s a sham - and if it’s not going to do it’s job - then it should go away.
