In general, I don't think popular vote totals for President are relevant because they don't produce a winner, so people don't vote in states where their candidate will easily win. This is true for both "red" and "blue" states.
I frequently don't vote here in CA because my choices win whether I vote or not. I can't be the only one who makes the same choice.
I also live in California, and often feel as though my vote does not matter.
This is sort of the crux of my argument. Our system has reached a point where individual Americans can feel as if their vote doesn't matter because......well, it doesn't. That's a very unhealthy point for a democracy to be at.
I don't believe that is the intention behind our Democratic system (unfortunately maybe it was originally, but I'm working off of our 21st century interpretation of what the democratic system is for, not that of the slaveholding founders).
It was engineered to avoid the tyranny of the majority, not to facilitate the tyranny of the minority (again, ignoring the actions of the original founders).
Some of the most significant policy decisions of my lifetime (from the Iraq war to the present scuffles) have been enacted by presidents who did not even receive the popular vote (with, as you pointed out a popular vote not being a majority vote). That seems to me to be a problem.
I frequently don't vote here in CA because my choices win whether I vote or not. I can't be the only one who makes the same choice.