Former Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson said Saturday that "we need to make some changes" to the nation's political system — possibly even abolishing the Electoral College — because it's a process "that's disregarding the will of the people."
"One of the reasons that this is the year of the outsiders because people were so tired of the status quo and the rules that were arbitrary, created to advantage one group or another group," Carson, the retired pediatric neurosurgeon, told Uma Pemmaraju on
Fox News. "Whatever happened to 'We are the people, the American people?'
"The power has been served," added Carson, who quit the 2016 race last month and has since endorsed Donald Trump. "That's what people are irritated about.
"This makes it extraordinarily clear: It is not about Donald Trump or Ted Cruz or anybody else. It is about the system."
The Electoral College, established by the Founding Fathers via the U.S. Constitution, has long been targeted as an example of circumventing the will of the American people.
The college was set up to retain a representative form of government. Each state is allotted the number of electors equal to the size of its delegation to the House and Senate. The electors typically vote for the candidate who won the popular vote in their respective states.
Carson told Pemmaraju that any reform should include a discussion of doing away with the Electoral College.
"When the Electoral College was put in place, a lot of people did not know what was going on," he said. "They had no idea who was running or what the situation was. That has changed significantly.
"We have a situation now where in some states, like California, you have basically negated the vote of a large group of people," Carson added. "They say, 'What's the point of going in the vote? If you are conservatives, why vote in the presidential election? Your vote is not going to count — and you know it is going to go to Democrats.'
"Those kinds of things can be looked at again."
He said he believes that Trump can get the necessary 1,237 delegates to win the Republican nomination.
"The possibility is quite strong," Carson said. "A lot of people are starting to realize that if we are going to keep the parties from being destroyed, we have to come out and vote in large numbers to prevent that from happening."