3. What are the facts supporting each system?
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The Electoral College was written into the Constitution, the winner-take-all system that dominates it was not.
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The Constitution guarantees the states the right to decide for themselves how to distribute their electoral votes.
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The Winner-take-all laws are statutes that were adopted state-by-state over a period of just under 100 years from 1797 to 1880. They can legally be replaced by other state laws.
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The Winner-take-all laws were adopted not to provide protection for the less populous state from domination by more populous states, but to guarantee the power of political leaders and their preferred political parties.
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Interstate Compacts (as in the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact) were in existence before the Constitution. They are constitutionally legal and are common today: The Colorado River Compact involving 7 states including Utah; the New York-New Jersey Port Authority Interstate Compact; The Great Lakes Compact and the Mid Atlantic Regional Compact.
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The National Popular Vote Interstate Compact is nonpartisan legislation and has supporters all across the political spectrum from New Gringich to Howard Dean.
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The National Popular Vote Interstate Compact will not go into effect until enough states with a value of 270 electoral votes have enacted the statute within their legislatures.
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Once the NPV Compact goes into effect, voters in non-member states will nevertheless have their votes count in presidential elections because in a National Popular Vote election, the candidate who wins the most popular votes nationwide will be guaranteed the presidency.
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