With elections decided by a few votes in a few states, it leaves things more vulnerable to hacking by bad actors because small changes in these areas can swing the election.

Yes and no. Let’s suppose you have to choose between two places to go on vacation. Both are nice, but one appeals to you a bit more, say 51–49. Secret agents working for the 49 destination put sardines in the A/C units at the 51 destination, you find out about the smell — but not the source — and you choose the 49 place and have a nice vacation. The closeness of the contest may have prompted the interference, but the damage to you is minimal.

So, conceding that close swing states prompt interference — and ignoring for now they a close contest under any other system would not — I believe the real problem lies in the quality of the candidates. Elections should have consequences, but they should not pose existential risks to the nation. Our enemies shouldn’t care which of our Presidential candidates wins, because all of our Presidential candidates should be effective and dedicated protectors of our national interest. If Gore had beaten Bush, things would have gone differently, but I suspect we would still have had the Great Financial Crisis and we’d still be standing ten years after.

What 2016 shows is not that swing states are dangerous but that feckless political parties are dangerous. There is no reason on God’s green earth why Donald Trump should have been a viable Presidential candidate. How badly did Newt and Harry and Mitch, but especially Mitch, have to fuck up Congress for Trump to rise? How do these bozos not see that the real security risk was Congress’s 19% approval rating, a vacuum of the sort nature abhors and tyrants occupy.

The EC is an enormously efficient system so long as there are swing states. To carry Colorado, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Florida, a candidate must appeal to a very broad cross-section of American political interests. That’s what holds a continental nation together. We must protect it, not reject it.