Another Stupid Election Year

I feel frustrated and angry as this country blunders at full speed through another stupid election process.
3.1 million people in Iowa get to go first, ahead of everyone else, setting the trend, making the bandwagon for people to follow on to. But in 2016, 171,517 people actually showed up. 171,517 people with some blessed status to have the most important votes in the country. And not for any good reason, but through accident of a bunch of crappy reasons.
And then three other states get to go, and then finally on March 3 about a third of the country gets to vote, and two thirds of the country has to wait and watch and wonder if they get to have any say when the vote finally comes around to them.
And I'm angry that the system is so stupid and wrong when the right answer is so obvious. For the one office voted on by everyone in the country, president of the UNITED STATES, maybe the whole UNITED STATES should vote, all as one?
And it's long past time for the ELECTORAL COLLEGE to be scrapped. Either we should have a REAL DIRECT ELECTION (my preference) or we should stop pretending and just have a parliamentary style system and the House can elect a President.
And people who pay attention to such things have known for decades (possibly centuries) that pick-one ballots are stupid and inferior and being able to rank your choices on the ballot opens up a world of possibility of BETTER ELECTION RESULTS. Better ballots result in better decision making and better results.
I'm angry that the system is stupid when better solutions cost almost nothing and are trivially knowable.