Ignoring voters is the opposite of what the president is supposed to do, as the only elected official in America whose job it is to represent everyone equally, wherever they live. This is why the winner-take-all rule is so destructive to our nation’s politics and culture. It deforms our political relationship to one another, creating a false picture of a country carved up into bright red and blue blocs, when in fact we are purple from coast to coast. It undermines policies with broad public support. It increases mistrust of government and decreases voter turnout. And it warps how presidential candidates campaign and how presidents govern.

“The way you can get elected in the U.S. is what shapes the campaigns,” Mr. Hundt told me. “The campaigns are what shape the candidates. And the candidates are what shape the presidency.”

So how would a national popular vote serve us better?

In the course of writing a book on the history of the Electoral College and the case for a national popular vote, I spoke to dozens of campaign managers, field directors, ground-game coordinators and other top officials from Republican and Democratic presidential campaigns of the last few decades. I figured if anyone could envision how a national popular vote election might play out, it’s the people who have devoted their professional lives to winning national elections.

Almost to a person, they said they would far prefer to run to win a popular-vote election.

“It would expand the map dramatically,” said Matthew Dowd, George W. Bush’s chief strategist in 2004. “Instead of having five, six or seven key states in 2020, you’d have a concerted campaign in at least 40. You’d still campaign in Ohio, and in Michigan, and in Wisconsin, but also in Texas, California, New York, New Jersey and Louisiana. You’d add red states and blue states to the mix that both candidates would have to campaign in.”

Both parties would work to rack up votes in places where they know they will do well — cities and inner-ring suburbs for Democrats; outer-ring suburbs, exurbs and rural areas for Republicans. At the same time, they would also work to get out the vote everywhere — if not to win outright, then at least to lose by less.

Mr. Dowd recalled the day in 2004 when he realized how much the existing system encouraged narrow, unrepresentative campaign strategies. “I said to myself, ‘Why are we doing all these national polls? Why are we talking to voters in 40 states that we’re not even competing in?’ We didn’t run a single national poll in the year of the re-election campaign. What difference does it make?”

“Practically, what that does is, whatever the national dialogue is doesn’t matter. And that one thing — basically saying no more national polls and only polls in five or six or seven states — is really detrimental to democracy.”