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The winner-take-all system used by the Electoral College in the United States appears nowhere in the Constitution. It awards all of a state\u2019s electors to the candidate with the most votes, no matter how small the margin of victory. Critics say that means millions of votes are effectively ignored.\n\nThe fairness of the Electoral College was seriously questioned in the 1960s. Amid the civil rights push, changes to the system were framed as the last step of democratization. But a constitutional amendment to introduce a national popular vote for president was eventually killed by segregationist senators in 1970.\n\nDesire for an overhaul dwindled until the elections of 2000 and 2016, when the system\u2019s flaws again came to the fore. In both instances, the men who became president had lost the popular vote.\n\nJesse Wegman, a member of The Times\u2019s editorial board, describes how the winner-take-all system came about and how the Electoral College could be modified.\n\nGuest: Jesse Wegman, a member of The New York Times\u2019s editorial board.\n\nFor more information on today\u2019s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily\xa0\n\nBackground reading:\xa0Here\u2019s a guide to how the Electoral College works.Watch Jesse\u2019s explainer, from our Opinion section, on how President Trump could win the election \u2014 even if he loses.