While there are historical factors to be discussed, so I won't remove this, there is an /r/Ask_Politics which you can also go to! You just need to include the "_" in there.

The electoral college is required in the constitution, and removing it would require a 2/3rds majority of congress (or 2/3rds of state legislatures to call a ratification convention, which has not been done) and 3/4ths majority of state legislatures - a very high bar met only 17 times since the adoption of the bill of rights. With this particular question, it's even harder because included among those state legislatures are those of small states which benefit from the electoral college.

(Admittedly, it could also be abolished de facto by an interstate compact if enough states chose to award their votes to the winner of the nationwide election, but no such movement has so far been successful.)

The winner in the electoral college has almost always tracked with the winner of the popular vote - political coalitions in the US don't typically involve enough small-state over-representation to systemically advantage one side or the other enough to sway elections. When the candidate who loses the electoral college wins the popular vote, they do so with substantial minority support which would typically prove enough to stymie any efforts to abolish the system outright, provided that the winner's supporters continue to support the electoral college system - Hayes, Harrison, and W. Bush all won 47.8% to 47.9% of the national vote.