The problems created by our presidential election system are intensifying:

Outside of the small group of swing states, voters don’t matter to the presidential campaigns.
The risk of a 2nd place candidate winning has shifted from “black swan” to systemic.
We continue to ignore other major risks like another Florida-style recount, or an election getting “thrown to the House,” which could create a stalemate or give final say to a minority party in the House.

The leading solutions won’t necessarily work:

The National Popular Vote Compact effort has made commendable progress but could fall short in purple and red states, and could be opposed by courts. It is also politically divisive and potentially unstable.
Maine/Nebraska-style allocation of electors by district injects gerrymandering into the presidential election and does not create a true national campaign.

We need a new idea.

Election Reformers Network is helping to promote a Top-2 Proportional Allocation Amendment:

To end winner-take-all (which causes most of the problem and is not in the Constitution), states are required to allocate their electoral votes proportionally to the top two vote-getters in the state.
The proportional calculation is carried out to the right of the decimal point – this means fractional electoral votes are available in every state for every candidate, creating a true national campaign.
Significantly reduces the impact of a “spoiler candidate.”
Elections remain state-based; there is no pooling of results across state lines, and states can easily add in ranked choice voting or other innovations as they see fit.
No change in the number of electors per state, retaining advantages for red and blue, large and small states.
Fixes “black swan” problems like a presidential election being “Thrown to the House” and revises the time-frame for resolving disputes.

To learn more, download this presentation, or see this January 2020 article.

Presidential Elections: the Top-Two Proportional Solution