Des Moines Register Opinion: The Electoral College is nonsensical. The popular-vote winner should always be the president.

Joe Biden collected 7 million more votes in 2020 than did Donald Trump. But it would have taken just 73,000 votes — a little over 1% of that majority — to reverse the outcome, under the nation’s seriously flawed Electoral College system.

There is no reason an American majority should be denied its choice for president. But it has happened in two of the past six presidential elections. A simple correction in the electoral process could ensure that the majority wins — and our nation is making progress toward that condition.

In 2000, Democrat Al Gore collected 50.2% of the popular vote but lost to George W. Bush, who won the electoral college 271-266. In 2016, Democrat Hillary Clinton out-polled Trump by close to 3 million votes out of 128 million cast. But our system, giving all of a state’s support to whoever wins that state’s majority, made Trump the winner. There were similar errors in three 19th-century elections. Such denials could be easily avoided.

The U.S. Constitution gives authority for electoral vote compilations to state legislatures: “Each state shall appoint, in such manner as the legislature thereof may direct, a number of electors ….” That means state legislators are free to adopt the “National Popular Vote” compact. As described by a prime advocate, the nationwide, 1.5-million-member Common Cause organization, it is “an agreement among states to guarantee the presidency to the candidate who receives the most popular votes in all 50 states and the District of Columbia.”