A problem with direct election of president

In the Jan. 6 Opinion page, Harry Trumfio makes the case for eliminating the Electoral College in electing our president and using the popular vote instead. I’ll agree he makes some good points. But on the other side, I would use the 2016 election as an example of why it doesn’t work. Hillary Clinton won the popular vote by 2.9 million votes, but looking closer, she won California by 4.3 million votes. Take California out of the equation and Trump wins popular vote by 1.4 million. So in using just the popular vote, California would elect our president. We, on the other hand would have more free time because there wouldn’t be any point in us voting.

John Gatto

Galena