July 11, 2019 - 09:03 PM EDT Sanders says he backs abolishing Electoral College

Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) on Thursday night said he favored getting rid of the Electoral College. 

Sanders was pressed on the issue at a presidential town hall hosted by the League of United Latin American Citizens. 

"It is hard to defend a system in which we have a president who lost the popular vote by 3 million votes, so the answer is yes," he said.

"Presidential elections cannot be fought out in just a dozen 'battleground' states," he told The Washington Post. 

A number of other Democratic presidential hopefuls including Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Cory Booker (D-N.J.) and Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), as well as South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg (D) have also called to eliminate the Electoral College.

The Electoral College has faced renewed scrutiny from the left after 2016 Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton lost the presidential election despite winning the national popular vote by just under 3 million votes. President Trump won the Electoral College, though, by a margin of 304 to 227.  The push to consider moving to a national popular vote comes as several Democratic states in recent months have entered into the National Popular Vote interstate compact, an agreement that would essentially bypass the Electoral College if enough states join.