When it comes to choosing the president, a Washington state voter is worth about three-eighths of a Wyoming voter. California voters are even less valuable; they’re only worth about one-fifth of a Wyoming voter.

Welcome to the Electoral College, the peculiar institution by which we choose our presidents.

Five times in U.S. history and twice in the last 16 years the loser of the popular vote – this time by over 1 million votes – has won the Electoral College to become president.

So, where did this peculiar institution come from? Why, from that other peculiar institution, slavery, these United States second original sin.

When the Constitution was negotiated, the slave-owning aristocrats that controlled the southern states were concerned that the northern states would dominate the country and abolish their right to own other humans.

The first great slavery compromise was to grant these aristocrats three-fifths of a vote for every slave they owned.

The second was the Electoral College.

Even if blacks, other minorities, non-land owning white men, or even women were theoretically allowed to vote, they could be disenfranchised in practice without it affecting that state’s Electoral College voting power at all, since it is based on population, not the number of potential or actual voters.

And the Electoral College system carried over the imbalance created by granting each state two senators, regardless of actual population. Hence, the exaggerated value of voters in Wyoming.

Other reasons are trotted out to justify this antiquated undemocratic handmaiden of slavery.

In the late 18th century and early 1800s, there were no mass communications, internet, TV radio or even telegraph. Most people lived on remote farms and in small isolated rural villages.

Travel was slow, difficult and frequently dangerous. Trade networks were much more limited. Initially, there weren’t even political parties to wage election campaigns. Having the election decided by popular vote would be dangerous.

People would be uninformed.

But times have now changed. With a few taps on a keyboard, I can talk to someone in Antarctica, China, even Wyoming. I can read newspapers from all over the world. I can get on an airplane and be in urban centers anywhere on the planet within a couple of days. I can buy a camera lens from Japan in minutes and receive it in a week.

Yet, we are still choosing the leader of our country with a compromise created to prolong the moral stain of slavery, in a time when the modern interconnectedness of our country by communications, travel and trade was simply unimaginable.

Its past time for this country to finally give full birth to the democratic promise of the American Revolution and get rid of that peculiar 18th century anachronism, the Electoral College.

But how?

Obviously, whatever party or interests benefit at any particular time are not going to willingly give up the power they’ve gained. Amending the Constitution to abolish the Electoral College is unlikely to happen anytime soon for that reason.

But there is another way and that is simply following the will of the people. Polls going back generations consistently show the vast majority of Americans want direct election of the president.

The National Popular Vote Interstate Compact (NPVIC) will give voice to our wish. Its an agreement among states to award all of their electoral votes to the winner of the popular vote for president.

It will go into effect when states holding 270 electoral votes – the number needed to choose the president – enter into the compact.

Currently, 10 states and Washington, D.C., have adopted legislation to implement the compact. Washington state joined the compact in 2009. Together, these states have 165 electoral college votes, 61 percent of the total needed. One or both legislative bodies in 12 other states have passed the compact. If these states join the compact, the compact would go into force.

It’s time for equality in voting. It’s time to finally give force to those words we learned in elementary school: All men are created equal.

n Steve Erickson is a Clinton resident.