The 17th amendment took away State's rights in favor of the popular vote as it relates to Senators. Frankly it should be appealed.

The electoral college, while frustrating at times, forces candidates to appeal to a broader portion of the population.

Agreed... and you mean "repealed" of course.

It's in the Constitution and since I usually don't favor amending a constitution, I'm Ok with it. The Electoral College usually reflects the popular vote anyway and I can only think of one time a candidate (Bush/Gore 2000) won the popular vote and lost the electoral vote.

It does tend to make candidates focus on the more populous & 'swing' states that have more electoral votes, but that's what a democracy is all about, the majority.

It is still the best in the world, Crusader. Our forefathers were much smarter than many give them credit for. If it weren't in place, a campaign need only focus in the large population centers, leaving rural areas ignored. Ours is not a full blown democracy but a republic. More specifically, a constitutional federal republic. However, this government is operated as a representative democracy by a congress. The important distinction is that the USA is not operated democratically, but rather by representatives who come to power by democractic process. This was an essential and subtle fundamental of the constitution: we are not a true democracy which could amount to mob rule, but a representative democracy in which our leaders act in our interests.

I guess you don't wanna change the constitution more than you have to; but sometimes it is neccessary, take the 19th amendment giving women the right to vote as a good example.

If I understand it correctly moste states give all the states electoral votes to the candidate with the most votes in that state meaning in essence that it doesn't matter if 3 people or 3 million people vote in a state the winning candidate will get all the votes anyway.