https://www.yahoo.com/news/democratic-sen-boxer-plans-bill-to-scrap-electoral-college-195553153.html

Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif. (Photo: Pete Marovich/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

Outgoing Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., plans to

introduce legislation on Tuesday to eliminate the Electoral College and

to award the presidency to the candidate with the greater share of the

popular vote, in direct response to President-elect Donald Trump’s

historic victory.

“This is the only office in the land where you can

get more votes and still lose the presidency,” Boxer said in a

statement. “The Electoral College is an outdated, undemocratic system

that does not reflect our modern society, and it needs to change

immediately. Every American should be guaranteed that their vote

counts.”

Trump romped over Hillary Clinton in the battle for

Electoral College votes, and stands to get 290 to her 232 when the

electors vote next month. But the former secretary of state won the day

in the popular vote, where she is leading by roughly 800,000 votes

according to Associated Press figures.

There’s no reason to think that Republicans who

control Congress will take up, much less adopt, Boxer’s proposal, which

would amend the Constitution in order to scrap the Electoral College. To

be ratified, the amendment would need support from two-thirds of both

houses, followed by approval by 38 of the 50 states.

Trump had called the Electoral College “a disaster

for democracy” in response to President Obama’s 2012 reelection, at a

time when Trump believed Obama would lose the popular vote. In a “60

Minutes” interview that aired Sunday, Trump said his opinion hadn’t changed, despite the results of the current election.

“I would rather see it where you went with simple

votes. You know, you get 100 million votes, and somebody else gets 90

million votes, and you win,” he told CBS News’ Lesley Stahl.

But Trump took

to Twitter on Tuesday to declare the Electoral College “actually genius”

and to declare that he would have “won even bigger and more easily” if

the presidency had been determined by the popular vote.

It’s impossible to know whether that would be true,

but Trump’s core argument — that you campaign on the basis of the rules

that decide the winner — is basically correct.