President-elect Donald Trump credited the Electoral College for his repeat trips to Maine during the campaign.

In his interview with The New York Times on Tuesday, Trump said he likes the electoral system because “it gets you out to see states that you’ll never see otherwise.”

If the popular vote alone elected presidents, he said, candidates would only go to three or four states.

“You wouldn’t leave New York. You’d stay in New York and you’d stay in California,” he told the Times, according to a transcript the newspaper published on Wednesday.

Trump, who defeated Democrat Hillary Clinton, said the electoral count makes the race “very interesting” and broadens the contest to include more places.

“Like Maine,” he said. “I went to Maine four times. I went to Maine (District) 2 for one (electoral vote), because everybody was saying you can get to 269 but there is no path to 270.”

Shortly before the election, Trump campaigned at a Christian academy in Lisbon, his fifth campaign appearance in Maine, in a bid to bolster his support in the state’s more rural 2nd Congressional District, where he won one electoral vote on Nov. 8. Clinton won the state’s other three electors.

As it turned out, Trump didn’t need the electoral vote from Maine, but some scenarios had the race turning on the outcome in the 2nd District.

Trump said he heard there was “no path” to the 270 electoral votes he needed without the state.

“You have to get one in Maine,” he said, “so we kept going back to Maine and we did get one in Maine.” His family also campaigned for him here.

“We kept going to Maine (District) 2, and we went to a lot of states that you wouldn’t spend a lot of time in,” he said.

“So there’s a certain genius about” the Electoral College, Trump said.

“So there’s a certain genius about” the Electoral College, Trump said.