The Electoral College

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by jeremiah sessions3 views·Updated Mar 2, 2021
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  1. Hello, I am Jeremiah Sessions, and today I'll be presenting
  2. on the Electoral College the basics of the Electoral College.
  3. What exactly is the Electoral College?
  4. Contrary to what you may be thinking, the Electoral College
  5. is not a college.
  6. Instead, it is a group of selected voters group being
  7. a relative term of 538 people.
  8. The United States Electoral College is a group of presidential
  9. electors required by the Constitution to form every four years
  10. for the sole purpose of electing the president and vice
  11. president. What is the intended purpose?
  12. Among the many thorny questions debated by the delegates in
  13. the 17 87 constitute to national convention.
  14. One of the hardest to resolve was how to elect
  15. the president.
  16. The founding Fathers debated for months, with some arguing that
  17. Congress should pick the president and others insisting on a
  18. democratic popular vote.
  19. Their compromise is known as the Electoral College.
  20. Another group of politicians was dead set on letting the
  21. people elect the president by a straight popular vote.
  22. First, they thought the 18th century voters lacked the resources
  23. to be fully informed about the candidates, especially in rural
  24. outposts. Second, they feared ahead strong Democratic mob steering the
  25. country astray.
  26. And third, a populist president appealing directly to the people
  27. could command dangerous amounts of power.
  28. Is it working?
  29. No. In the short answer, no, The Electoral College was
  30. created in a time where information about the president electives
  31. could not easily be access to people like it is.
  32. Now. Americans or people in general have so much access
  33. to information that people take for granted.
  34. Anyone could easily find out about information about the president
  35. or president electives.
  36. So why shouldn't we use it?
  37. Imagine you and your siblings are choosing a movie to
  38. watch. You decided the best way to choose.
  39. If you take a vote after your vote, you've decided
  40. which one to finally watch.
  41. But just before you watched it, your parents come in
  42. and decided to put in a movie of their choice
  43. by also voting.
  44. That's kind of what the Electoral College is like.
  45. America as a nation decides which president they want to
  46. elect by what is known as a popular vote, and
  47. then the electoral votes come in, and then they choose
  48. where they want.
  49. As president they have.
  50. There have been five times in history, where the presidential
  51. candidates have won the popular vote but lost the Electoral
  52. College vote In order to find better options in the
  53. Electoral College, we must we first need to look at
  54. other countries, So let's go look at France.
  55. The French government, originally the president, was elected by the
  56. College Day and No tablas, an assembly of notable electors
  57. that included around 80,000 county, country and city or town
  58. councillors. Now the president is elected by a majority vote.
  59. Currently, the president of the French Republic is elected to
  60. a five year term in a two round election under
  61. Article seven of their constitution.
  62. If no candidate secured an absolute majority, including blank and
  63. void ballots votes in the first round.
  64. A second round is held two weeks later between the
  65. two candidates who received the most votes 1965 when the
  66. current direct election system was introduced.
  67. Every election has gone to a second round.
  68. Why is it important?
  69. This stuff is pretty important because Americans voices are not
  70. quite being heard instead of Americans deciding on who they
  71. want as president.
  72. It's all chosen by the Electoral College who look at
  73. our votes and are supposed to vote based on what
  74. their state chooses.
  75. But that's not what always what happens.
  76. There needs to be a better system that gives America's
  77. Americans more voice like France with a majority vote election.
  78. Thank you for watching.
  79. This has been Jeremiah Sessions on the Electoral College.