In Sunday's column I said it's time to neuter the Electoral College, and urged more states to enact the National Popular Vote bill. Twelve states including Illinois have already passed this, representing 172 electoral votes. When enough states pass it to reach 270 electoral votes, (98 votes are needed) the bill will take effect without Congressional or presidential approval.

The bill, a compact of states, applies only to presidential elections. It requires every state's electoral votes to go to the winner of the popular vote.

This equalizes the weight of every voter, which is as it should be. Sunday I examined reasons why the founders established the Electoral College, one of which was to give southern slave states equal influence to northern, free states, by counting the 700,000 slaves as three-fifths of a person.

The Electoral College system makes a mockery of democracy. In that sense it does what it was intended to do. Someone's vote in a small, lightly populated state like Wyoming is worth much more than a vote in a big state like Texas or California.

Naturally the column received lots of comments, all posted publicly. These are selected from my Facebook page and the Register Star's Facebook page.

Adam Pickett: "The whole point of the Electoral College is to give everyone a fair vote. If the United States went to a popular vote system, then we would have five major cities deciding every presidential election. The Electoral College sort of evens the playing field and is what’s needed to give everyone an 'equal' vote. It’s not perfect but it’s a step up from going to a system that uses the popular vote."

Larry Eissler: "I've always known that Chuck had horrible ideas and doesn't know what he is talking about, but this just proves it."

Craig Allen: "So, elections will only matter in New York, Chicago, and (Los Angeles) where there are large amounts of people. I say hell no."

Dan Koteski: "Madison, the father of the Constitution, needed to appease slaveholding states with the Electoral College, such as his home state of Virginia, but preferred a popular vote of rich white men from the start despite being a slaveholder himself."

Brent Nelson: "That's fine we can do that if we get voter ID cards for all voters. But that will never happen because a Democrat needs illegals and deceased people to vote."

Joshua Brown: "Of course you would say this Chucky. So do you think the peoples views in LA, NY and Chicago reflect those of the entire nation?"

Ryan Petry: "Chuck is talking like the drunk uncle who we all wish didn’t go to the family reunions."

Scott P. Richert: "Why not eliminate Congress, too? The House of Representatives is based on the same logic as the Electoral College, and ever since senators have been directly elected, they have been representatives of the statewide popular vote. Might as well just go to a nationwide popular vote for a single office. That’s the easiest and best way to ensure that our government represents the popular will, and nothing more."

Michael Abbott: "Reading most of the comments here, it would seem that the Electoral College were put here to protect the whack-job vote. If you folks want to know why you keep losing the popular vote in nationwide elections, read through the comment from zanies hating on Mr. Sweeny here."

Bryan Redington: "Great article today, Chuck. I agree 100%... Wyoming voters carry 3.6 times the clout of a California voter??? I bet most people don't realize that. One person, one vote ... what is unfair about that?"

Paul Huff: "People only want things like this to change when their candidate didn’t win. When their respective candidate wins, it’s ‘working as designed’ — when not, it’s flawed and must be changed."

Benita Lasky: "Amen! Please push for this. The most important thing we could do to give the country back to the people."

Don Gugliuzza: "We have to wait until the Democrats take over the government. No Republican would agree to this because the last Republican president was elected, not by the people, but by the Electoral College."

Ronald Keinz: "Actually the last two Republicans, George W. Bush and Donald Trump. Al Gore won the popular vote in 2000."

Eric Anderberg: "Yeah! yeah!! Huzzah! Do away with the Constitution too! It's too antiquated! Gimme a break, no wonder after 45 years my parents just recently stopped their subscription to the RRSTAR."

Chuck Sweeny: csweeny@rrstar.com; @chucksweeny