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So we turn to the second conservative talking point - that it stops urban areas from overrunning the rural ones, by having more people. (And we'll leave aside that that was a concern largely for less-populated states that wanted to keep their slave-owning ways) I think Jamelle Bouie put it pretty well: "[Abolishing the Electoral College means that politicians will only campaign in (and listen to) urban areas.] is wrong on the impact of ending the Electoral College. A presidential candidate who focused only on America's cities and urban centers would lose -- there just aren't enough votes. Republicans live in cities just as Democrats live in rural areas. Under a popular vote, candidates would still have to build national coalitions across demographic and geographic lines. The difference is that those coalitions would involve every region of the country instead of a handful of competitive states in the Rust Belt and parts of the South."