California had 4.5 million Republican presidential votes cast in 2016, more than the total votes cast in 41 states (in other words, more than all but 9 states,

California had 4.5 million Republican presidential votes cast in 2016, more than the total votes cast in 41 states (in other words, more than all but 9 states, one of which is California itself). [0] Many of these voters live in the Central Valley, which grows much of the crops produced in the United States (over a third of the country's vegetables and two-thirds of the country's fruits and nuts). [1] If you throw in the over 3 million Republican presidential votes cast in New York, the current system disenfranchises as many Republicans in 2 states as 30% of total votes cast in the 11 Midwest states won by the Republican. I understand the impulse to push back against the coasts, as someone originally from the Midwest and is trying to move back there, but the electoral college is not a good system. It harms as many people as it helps. Voters in ~10 “swing states” get bombarded with ads and visits, while the rest of the country gets (comparatively) ignored. Incidentally, I don’t really think the popular vote is a great system either, particularly in historical examples of no candidate winning a majority of the votes. I would much prefer a system like instant runoff where voters rank candidates based on preference. [2] The Wikipedia hole on electoral methods is a fun read for anyone interested. [3] [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2016_United_States_presidential_election#Results_by_state https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2016_United_States_presidentia... [1] http://www.cdfa.ca.gov/Statistics/ http://www.cdfa.ca.gov/Statistics/ [2] https://www.fairvote.org https://www.fairvote.org [3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Condorcet_method https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Condorcet_method