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>>I have a theoretical question (for anyone who's interested). In theory (though admittedly, never in practice), someone could win the electoral vote with as little as about 22% of the popular vote. Is there any value at which you would say that, whether it's our historical system or not, the difference between the popular vote and the electoral vote is so large that it casts doubt on the legitimacy of the outcome? If the answer is yes, what is that value?
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>When I look at the combination of states they mentioned - the notion that someone would take those combinations of states but lose all others - well, that's a real work of fiction.

The really worrying thought is that only ~25% of eligible voters cared enough for 1 candidate (perhaps not even that, but against the other...) to vote. So in reality you are already at the state where prez elect usually carries a percentage close to percentages typically needed to block something in a share based corporation.

Of course that is NOT totally the fault of electoral system - even in swing states participation is not that much higher - but R voters in NY or CA feel probably as shafted as D in TX.