I'd like to put in a contrary viewpoint in favor of the electoral college system. While it is true today that most of the states are blue or red and are essentially locks for their respective parties with only about 18 states in play, I contend that it would be even worse if the electoral system were abandoned.
The idea of the electoral college came out of the same small state versus big state arguments that created the Connecticut Compromise where the House was based on population while the Senate had equal representation among the states. It was feared that big states would overwhelm the smaller states.
That is still a fear today. If there were no electoral college, candidates would completely ignore virtually every part of the country and spend all of their time campaigning in the largest cities: New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, etc. Those places that are ignored today by candidates will continue to be ignored since there aren't any huge cities in the small states. Candidates try to get more bang for the buck, so they have all the incentive to campaign in the big cities and ignore the fiscally inefficient small towns.
At least today, medium to small states often have a huge say. The biggest battleground states these days involve several small states, including New Hampshire, Nevada, Colorado, Wisconsin, Iowa and so on. Granted some larger states are also battlegrounds, such as Florida and Ohio, but those other states cannot be taken for granted. Imagine if there were no electoral college. Would any candidate ever be seen in Milwaukee, Las Vegas, Des Moines, or Concord? No.
Populations shifts happen a lot too with electoral votes re-allocated every ten years. Power has moved west towards the midwest and away from the mid-Atlantic and east coast states over the last couple of decades. Shifts will continue to happen. Having electoral votes gives smaller states the possibility of power while a general election without one gives all the power to the large cities. Each additional electoral vote picked up gives tremendously more power to the smaller states. Oregon, a fairly small state population-wise, has five electoral votes. Gaining a sixth, which is highly likely in the next census, would increase voting power by 20%. A loss by New York of one or two votes wouldn't affect it too much, on the other hand.
In general, the electoral college votes the same way as the rest of the population with only a handful of exceptions. The biggest difference, though, is in changing the behavior of candidates in that they cannot ignore small populations, which they would otherwise be able to do.
