Ms Boxer introduced long-shot bill on Tuesday that calls for a constitutional amendment that would eliminate the Electoral College in US presidential elections. The bill comes in the wake of the most recent US election, which saw Republican candidate Donald Trump delivered to the White House with a majority of the available electoral votes, despite Democratic rival Hilary Clinton eclipsing him on election day by more than 1 million voters. This is the second time since 2000 that a candidate has claimed the presidency of the United States despite losing the popular vote – the feat was also achieved by former US President and fellow Republican George W. Bush.

Big states lead the push

As noted by Vox’s Brad Plumer, it is predictable that California should be leading the charge to dismantle the Electoral College. As a large, prosperous and populous state that almost always tilts towards the Democrats, a system whereby the state is allocated 55 electoral votes rather than more than 38 million individual votes for each Californian resident does no favours for the state. Ms Clinton won California on 8 November by more than 3 million votes, but claimed the same amount of electoral votes as of she’d won it by only 3,000. Meanwhile, Republican rival Mr Trump claimed bundels of electoral votes in other states with much smaller margins.

Every vote should count, says Boxer

Introducing the bill, Ms Boxer said: ‘When all the ballots are counted, Hilary Clinton will have won the popular vote by a margin that could exceed 2 million votes, and she is on track to have received more votes than any other presidential candidate since Barack Obama… The Electoral College is an outdated, undemocratic system that does not reflect our modern society, and it needs to change immediately.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.’

Sources: Barbara Boxer; Vox