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Merkley said, “Well, we know the Electoral College, Erin, was founded on a rotten foundation. It was founded as an effort, as a strategy to accentuate the strength of those states who were slave states. And there’s just no justification for it now. …

That's as false as false can be. Actually it is quite the opposite if that was a factor at all - hence why the two Senate seats count toward the Electoral number - those two votes are not affected by population to give smaller states a voice in electing the President of the United STATES, which weakened the 3/5 of slaves counting toward House seats. So if want to follow his logic we should give every state 2 electoral votes and eliminate the House seats factor.

(Merkley) later added that "… But certainly, recent history has shown that we have a system that the flaws have been exposed in, and it diminishes the legitimacy of our president, which is something else we should be deeply concerned about.”

In what way does this occur? The States electing their President as designed and intended in our Constitutional Republic diminishes the President's legitimacy? This is just word salad to affect those who don't know what he's talking about. Most lay people who you ask that oppose the Electoral College could not explain what it is - and don't know that when you are voting for President you are voting in a local election created by your state legislature - not the Federal government. It is not a national election at all.