The concept of the electoral college is amazing the only problem for me is the electors because some can be faithless electors witch is a problem but other than that it’s amazing it prevents cities from bullying the rural areas
I think the way to prevent mob rule is to enshrine special rights and protections to prevent you from being oppressed by a majority, rather than simply... tipping the scales, and being oppressed by a minority instead. Mob rule is certainly favorable to minority rule, anyway.
@@TheNoodleGod9001 the electoral college is not minority rule. Its a totally different system. The problem with majority rule is not just the rights that could be infringed upon, its the fact that the minority doesnt get a say
@@TheNoodleGod9001 No. The electoral colleges just gives the minority a say. It doesnt take away the say of the majority. The electoral college takes the majority rule idea and breaks it apart into groups, taking the majority of each group into account
There's something called the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact that's been getting worked on since 2006. If it gets enough states to sign on to reach the 270 electoral votes threshold, then all the signatories would give their electoral votes to the national popular vote winner instead of the candidate who won in their states.
Excellent research and analysis once again, Dan! So glad I recently found your videos. On the Electoral College... I think going to a system where all states split their votes by congressional district, like Maine (ME) and Nebraska (NE), would be a much better for democracy. The congressional districts are based on population, so it gives voice to each state, but also would reflect the week of the people based on population density. This is a solution to the Electoral College issue of "unfairness". Similarly (but differently), the UK picks their highest elected official (the Prime Minister) using the same number of representatives in parliament (government). In their system however, people don't directly vote for their preferred candidate... their government representative does. In that way... the Electoral College system is better, because it puts the power into the hands of the people. By going to a EC system with split districts, it allows each congressional district to better represent the will of the people in that district. This gives better representation, while still making sure all states (and congressional districts) matter in elections for the president. .
A similar way to do it would be with a Proportional System. So instead of districts, it would be a state-wide election, but the electors would be split up proportionally to the percentage of State-wide votes. This way you don’t have to worry about gerrymandered districts and it gives 3rd parties a say in the electoral college.
@@lukeporras1288 Interesting idea, Luke. So... are you suggesting that if a Green Party gets 10% of the vote, in a state with 10 electoral college votes, they would be awarded with 1 electoral college vote? Congressional Districts are supposed to be proportional to the number of people in the state, such that each district roughly has the same number of people. In that way splitting by congressional district is more or less proportional. It really is an interesting idea though! I think that either way (by congressional district or proportional as you're suggesting), it would give third party candidates a chance. It should definitely be reformed in any case.
As a Canadian, I've always been curious about the Electoral College. I always thought it was super dumb but after watching this I kind of like it now. Also, its SCARY how similar my handwriting is to yours! Haha I feel like I'm watching my own hand write and draw everything lol Loving your vids dude, keep up the great work!
You are awesome. This channel is exactly what I needed in 2020. Thank you for your neutral way of explaining everything. I would love a video on gerrymandering and why D.C isn't a state and the partisan opinions on both. Earned a new subscriber.
What a great recap of the electoral college. Much needed as I was likely dozing off during high school history class during this particular lesson. Thanks Professor Zimmerman!
Thank you for clarifying that each state determines how they assign the people to the electoral college. One note: one of the main reasons, that we have the electoral college, is for a situation when your have 5 candidates run, and the most popular one gets less than say 30% of the popular vote. The electoral college system ensures that the person, sitting in the oval office, is there by a majority vote (either from the electoral college, or from congress). Only once has someone actually won a majority of the popular vote, and lost the electoral college: 1876. The other 4 times, no candidate reached a majority of the popular vote.
What are these mental gymnastics and alternative facts? It does not guarantee a majority vote or even a plurality vote from the people, which is what we measure. In FPTP, winning the popular vote means winning the most, not necessarily the majority. So, 5 times in American history, the candidate with fewer votes, or that lost the popular vote, won the election. Also, that is NOT one of the reasons the Founders created the electoral college. There are other alternatives that do the same thing but better.
Great video! I watched 3 others with one being extremely biased (and concerning) and this one was focused objectively on the principles of the current electoral college! Thank you!
Finally, someone explained it in a way that I could understand. Thank you so much for this. Although it is very disheartening because it makes me believe that to a desert degree my vote does not count unless I live in one of the swing states.
I like the electoral college because I don't exactly trust every citizen's vote. They could be clueless on what they are voting for. A good example is people hating President Trump for his personality, not for his policies.
Syntenel true, but we like to pride ourselves in democratically electing our leaders, and we have even justified overthrowing foreign leaders who were not democratically elected. If we want to truly live by that philosophy, we have to give everyone a voice, even the ones we think are “clueless.”
Besides watching Conjunction Junction, this makes more sense to me! My BFF was trying to explain it to me tonight and he made some sense 🤨😐but not all sense 😂 so I went to Google and TH-cam like I should have lol Great video Thank you!! 😁💯
Voter education for 17yr olds cirriculum should include: How to create ballot initiatives and referendums and get them passed in their area How to encourage their legislator to create and pass a legislative referral or rule/law, or repeal a rule/law, in their area How to recall, impeach, or remove a politician or elected official in their area How to research all registered candidates in their area (ex: the gov website with the list of registered candidates name and website) How to become a registered candidate and win an election in their area How and when to vote for every election in their district includeing primaries, midterms, local... How to become a lobbyist They would learn about: Ranked choice voting Open blanket non partisan primaries. Everyone being able to vote for anyone in the primaries. Automatic voter registration Mailing Ballots to everyone Democracy vouchers political contribution refundable tax credits that even non tax payers qualify for. Campaign contribution limits Upcoming election notifications notifications for what upcoming ballot measures will be bribery Term limits Independent non partisan redistricting commission gerrymandering Public campaign finance Super pacs Pacs (political action committies) Citizens united Federal election commission (fec) 501c4
I think the Electoral College May have made more sense back when I was implemented, but nowadays, with easy access to information from the internet, it isn’t nearly as important for candidates to reach out to citizens outside of cities.
This was very helpful thank you! I wonder why they don't just make it illegal for the electors to nominate another candidate than the one who had the most state votes? Why even risk faithless electors?
Well, originally the idea was that each Elector would vote for the candidate that he personally thought was the best. As time went on States started making rules about who the Electors could actually vote for but those rules are not usually strongly enforced. In many states faithless electors are actually illegal but there’s often no prescribed punishment or just a couple hundred dollar fine.
Electoral college works , the uninformed or low information have to learn this system. Electoral college helps all issues that a candidate must address and run on .
THE ELECTORAL COLLEGE The Epitome of American Democracy Very many Democrats (not all, but very many) believe that the Electoral College (the process used by America to decide a Presidential election) is not democratic because it doesn't necessarily follow the overall nation-wide vote count (the popular-vote). In fact, the Electoral College process is the ultimate democratic process because it follows the will of the individual STATES. Our country is the United STATES of America, not the Association of American Individuals. The popular-vote within each State is used to determine who the State votes for. The number of an individual State's presidential votes follows its popular-vote Congressional representation. Consequently, the electoral college process gives fair weight to each individual's vote in the individual States, as well as the States themselves. This is Democracy in action! In any event, while these "very many Democrats" hold that the sanctity of individual votes should be respected above all other concerns, the Democrat Party has agreed to nominate for President (and Vice President) a person who never received any votes in any popular-vote State primary race. Moreover, these two people running to be President and Vice President never competed in any of the popular-vote State primaries. She and he were appointed to the position, just as how China appoints it leader, and how the Soviet Union (now Russia) appoints its leader. In addition, to demonstrate the public's disfavor of the current Democrat Party Presidential candidate, when this person (Kamala Harris) did compete in the nominating process in 2020, she didn't win one popular-vote State primary. This is Totalitarianism in action; it is the hallmark of a Dictatorship. The question is simple: Do you want to live in a Totalitarian Dictatorship or a true Democracy? NOTE: Selecting a "Representative" to be the "spokesman" of any group is one of the most basic tenets of a democracy. For example, workers' Unions select a representative(s) to negotiate employment terms. The right to "unionize" and authorize a representative to legally speak on behalf of an entire union of individuals is deemed to be a precept of any democracy. Marc J. Rauch November 3, 2024
I need one explanation. On what basis these electors are chosen? If the state has more republican electors than that gives a win for the Republican Party and vice versa... and why would democrats chose a republican electors in 2016 for voting trump?. There are 55 electors in California, which party has majority electors? Democrats(28)+ republican(27)=55? Isn’t that unfair for republican?
The President is elected by 538 electors from each state + DC. Each state gets to choose the same number of electors as they have Congressmen. So for example, Arizona has 9 federal Representatives and 2 Senators. 9 + 2 is 11 total, so Arizona has 11 votes in the electoral college.
So why won't the government use the popular vote now seeing as it's very easy to count all the popular votes now? The Electoral College sounds like a racket and that my vote doesn't really matter...
You can control the speed of the video if you feel it is too fast. The average watch time of a TH-cam video is about 3.5 minutes. I’d take more time and slow down, but analytics show that people like the fast paced delivery.
PLEASE SUBSCRIBE to support more educational videos like this one! Thanks in advance! :)
overall it doesn't matter how many people watch your videos, you're doing a great job.
Thanks! You’re absolutely right. :)
Great video! I didn’t really understand the electoral college before this
I’m glad you liked it. It helped me understand it better myself by making the video. I had no idea about most of it. :)
The concept of the electoral college is amazing the only problem for me is the electors because some can be faithless electors witch is a problem but other than that it’s amazing it prevents cities from bullying the rural areas
That’s some good points. Thanks for watching and support the channel through your comment! :)
The problem is that, instead, it just allows rural areas to bully cities.
My opinion has changed on this matter I still think the electoral college is good but for different reasons
@@internalsnowman1 For what reasons?
Keep doing what you’re doing! It’s so helpful!
I definitely will. You’re a great support to me on keeping this going strong!
This is the most unbiased TH-cam channel I’ve ever seen.
I love the electroal college. I dislike faithless electore, but i think that the system as a whole is a wonderful way to prevent mob rule
Thanks for your comment and for supporting the channel!
I think the way to prevent mob rule is to enshrine special rights and protections to prevent you from being oppressed by a majority, rather than simply... tipping the scales, and being oppressed by a minority instead.
Mob rule is certainly favorable to minority rule, anyway.
@@TheNoodleGod9001 the electoral college is not minority rule. Its a totally different system. The problem with majority rule is not just the rights that could be infringed upon, its the fact that the minority doesnt get a say
@@warlikemicrobe3058 So instead the majority doesn't get a say?
@@TheNoodleGod9001 No. The electoral colleges just gives the minority a say. It doesnt take away the say of the majority. The electoral college takes the majority rule idea and breaks it apart into groups, taking the majority of each group into account
There's something called the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact that's been getting worked on since 2006. If it gets enough states to sign on to reach the 270 electoral votes threshold, then all the signatories would give their electoral votes to the national popular vote winner instead of the candidate who won in their states.
Interesting. I didn’t know that. Thanks for sharing! :)
Napovointerco!
Yeah, CGP Grey made a few videos about it.
You made this so easy to understand! Thank you!
Glad it was helpful!
Excellent research and analysis once again, Dan! So glad I recently found your videos.
On the Electoral College... I think going to a system where all states split their votes by congressional district, like Maine (ME) and Nebraska (NE), would be a much better for democracy. The congressional districts are based on population, so it gives voice to each state, but also would reflect the week of the people based on population density. This is a solution to the Electoral College issue of "unfairness".
Similarly (but differently), the UK picks their highest elected official (the Prime Minister) using the same number of representatives in parliament (government). In their system however, people don't directly vote for their preferred candidate... their government representative does. In that way... the Electoral College system is better, because it puts the power into the hands of the people.
By going to a EC system with split districts, it allows each congressional district to better represent the will of the people in that district. This gives better representation, while still making sure all states (and congressional districts) matter in elections for the president. .
Excellent points! :) thanks for sharing your thoughts here.
A similar way to do it would be with a Proportional System. So instead of districts, it would be a state-wide election, but the electors would be split up proportionally to the percentage of State-wide votes. This way you don’t have to worry about gerrymandered districts and it gives 3rd parties a say in the electoral college.
@@lukeporras1288
Interesting idea, Luke. So... are you suggesting that if a Green Party gets 10% of the vote, in a state with 10 electoral college votes, they would be awarded with 1 electoral college vote?
Congressional Districts are supposed to be proportional to the number of people in the state, such that each district roughly has the same number of people. In that way splitting by congressional district is more or less proportional. It really is an interesting idea though!
I think that either way (by congressional district or proportional as you're suggesting), it would give third party candidates a chance. It should definitely be reformed in any case.
@@justinb2630 Yes, that's exactly what I meant. But yeah, either of those would probably be a better way of doing it.
I like this information as well. I like that it is so factual. Good job Dan!
Thank you! I sure learned a lot in making it. :)
As a Canadian, I've always been curious about the Electoral College. I always thought it was super dumb but after watching this I kind of like it now.
Also, its SCARY how similar my handwriting is to yours! Haha I feel like I'm watching my own hand write and draw everything lol
Loving your vids dude, keep up the great work!
Haha we are long lost twins possibly. :)
@@impattman2199 Long lost triplets! haha
Thanks man I’ve been waiting to get a chance to watch this . Good job 👏🏽
Hope you enjoyed it!
Love this video. Amazing way of giving information in a 6-minute video while I gain knowledge. These videos keep on getting better :)
Thanks Ali! You’re one of my best supporters! Hope all is well down there in Texas! :)
I was really waiting for this one. Thank you!
Beautiful job, you deserve more recognition for the hard work you do
You’re so nice! I’ve noticed how much you’ve supported me. You’re one of the reasons I keep going and try to get better. Thank you!
You are awesome. This channel is exactly what I needed in 2020. Thank you for your neutral way of explaining everything. I would love a video on gerrymandering and why D.C isn't a state and the partisan opinions on both. Earned a new subscriber.
Great Ideas! Thanks for subscribing! I really appreciate it. :)
Love your vids! Keep up the good work.
Thank you! I definitely will. Thanks for watching! :)
please keep making content like this! it is so informative and non biased
Definitely will! A new video every Monday. Thanks for watching!
Thank you so much! You explained it so clear!
You're very welcome! Thanks for watching! Please subscribe if you haven't already. :)
What a great recap of the electoral college. Much needed as I was likely dozing off during high school history class during this particular lesson. Thanks Professor Zimmerman!
No problem! I think I fell asleep during that lesson too in history class. ;)
Ugh! Love your videos! Thank you!
Glad you like them!
Thank you for clarifying that each state determines how they assign the people to the electoral college.
One note: one of the main reasons, that we have the electoral college, is for a situation when your have 5 candidates run, and the most popular one gets less than say 30% of the popular vote. The electoral college system ensures that the person, sitting in the oval office, is there by a majority vote (either from the electoral college, or from congress). Only once has someone actually won a majority of the popular vote, and lost the electoral college: 1876. The other 4 times, no candidate reached a majority of the popular vote.
Interesting! Thanks for sharing that but of information. :)
What are these mental gymnastics and alternative facts? It does not guarantee a majority vote or even a plurality vote from the people, which is what we measure. In FPTP, winning the popular vote means winning the most, not necessarily the majority. So, 5 times in American history, the candidate with fewer votes, or that lost the popular vote, won the election. Also, that is NOT one of the reasons the Founders created the electoral college. There are other alternatives that do the same thing but better.
Great video! I watched 3 others with one being extremely biased (and concerning) and this one was focused objectively on the principles of the current electoral college! Thank you!
Finally, someone explained it in a way that I could understand. Thank you so much for this. Although it is very disheartening because it makes me believe that to a desert degree my vote does not count unless I live in one of the swing states.
Thank you so much! I have this video for school and you explained it perfectly! Thanks
No problem! :) Glad you enjoyed it.
A picture is worth 1000 words. Thanks for all the knowledge. I can talk to others in more intelligent manner.
I agree! I’m a visual learner myself. Glad you enjoyed the video. :)
I like the electoral college because I don't exactly trust every citizen's vote. They could be clueless on what they are voting for. A good example is people hating President Trump for his personality, not for his policies.
well, at the end of the day, the whole idea of a democracy is that the power should be with the people, no? Not just the people you agree with
@@akorn9943 Yes that would be a democracy, but the United States isn’t a direct democracy. It is a Democratic Constitutional Republic.
Syntenel true, but we like to pride ourselves in democratically electing our leaders, and we have even justified overthrowing foreign leaders who were not democratically elected. If we want to truly live by that philosophy, we have to give everyone a voice, even the ones we think are “clueless.”
But you trust 538 electors? Who can faithfully just vote by emotion and favoritism?
Hate him for both. Most Republican policies in the last 70 years have only benefitted the wealthy and white. Ill pass.
Great TH-cam channel, very informative…
Besides watching Conjunction Junction, this makes more sense to me! My BFF was trying to explain it to me tonight and he made some sense 🤨😐but not all sense 😂 so I went to Google and TH-cam like I should have lol Great video Thank you!! 😁💯
Having a constant viewer . Love from India
Thank you. Now I understand more clearly.
Voter education for 17yr olds cirriculum should include:
How to create ballot initiatives and referendums and get them passed in their area
How to encourage their legislator to create and pass a legislative referral or rule/law, or repeal a rule/law, in their area
How to recall, impeach, or remove a politician or elected official in their area
How to research all registered candidates in their area (ex: the gov website with the list of registered candidates name and website)
How to become a registered candidate and win an election in their area
How and when to vote for every election in their district includeing primaries, midterms, local...
How to become a lobbyist
They would learn about:
Ranked choice voting
Open blanket non partisan primaries. Everyone being able to vote for anyone in the primaries.
Automatic voter registration
Mailing Ballots to everyone
Democracy vouchers
political contribution refundable tax credits that even non tax payers qualify for.
Campaign contribution limits
Upcoming election notifications
notifications for what upcoming ballot measures will be
bribery
Term limits
Independent non partisan redistricting commission
gerrymandering
Public campaign finance
Super pacs
Pacs (political action committies)
Citizens united
Federal election commission (fec)
501c4
I think the Electoral College May have made more sense back when I was implemented, but nowadays, with easy access to information from the internet, it isn’t nearly as important for candidates to reach out to citizens outside of cities.
I think that’s a great point. Maybe there’s some room for innovation in the voting process now.
I'm only the 100th like? this channel is underrated
Anybody else here during the 2020 election while we wait
In the 1860 election, Abraham Lincoln won the electoral vote by a landslide even though he only won around 40% of the popular vote.
This was very helpful thank you! I wonder why they don't just make it illegal for the electors to nominate another candidate than the one who had the most state votes? Why even risk faithless electors?
That’s a good point! :)
Well, originally the idea was that each Elector would vote for the candidate that he personally thought was the best. As time went on States started making rules about who the Electors could actually vote for but those rules are not usually strongly enforced. In many states faithless electors are actually illegal but there’s often no prescribed punishment or just a couple hundred dollar fine.
Electoral college works , the uninformed or low information have to learn this system. Electoral college helps all issues that a candidate must address and run on .
No...
so do you usa see electors names on your ballot or names of candidates?
If the Electoral college can decide who wins why do we waste time going going to vote
It's based off of our votes on how a president secures a state
dumbest question ive ever read
Is the electors for each state who vote for the president based on the amount of republican or democratic Congress or Representatives elected first?
Thank you
Who do u vote if u do not wanna tell me ok
Who is the number one country in the world?
Australia 💥🎉🎉🎉🎉🖕
What will be if they both have 270 points?
It’s not possible due to splitting 538 electoral votes.
A little bit slow would help to process the inf.
change speed to slower speed, that would be helpful!
THE ELECTORAL COLLEGE
The Epitome of American Democracy
Very many Democrats (not all, but very many) believe that the Electoral College (the process used by America to decide a Presidential election) is not democratic because it doesn't necessarily follow the overall nation-wide vote count (the popular-vote).
In fact, the Electoral College process is the ultimate democratic process because it follows the will of the individual STATES. Our country is the United STATES of America, not the Association of American Individuals.
The popular-vote within each State is used to determine who the State votes for. The number of an individual State's presidential votes follows its popular-vote Congressional representation. Consequently, the electoral college process gives fair weight to each individual's vote in the individual States, as well as the States themselves. This is Democracy in action!
In any event, while these "very many Democrats" hold that the sanctity of individual votes should be respected above all other concerns, the Democrat Party has agreed to nominate for President (and Vice President) a person who never received any votes in any popular-vote State primary race. Moreover, these two people running to be President and Vice President never competed in any of the popular-vote State primaries. She and he were appointed to the position, just as how China appoints it leader, and how the Soviet Union (now Russia) appoints its leader. In addition, to demonstrate the public's disfavor of the current Democrat Party Presidential candidate, when this person (Kamala Harris) did compete in the nominating process in 2020, she didn't win one popular-vote State primary. This is Totalitarianism in action; it is the hallmark of a Dictatorship.
The question is simple: Do you want to live in a Totalitarian Dictatorship or a true Democracy?
NOTE: Selecting a "Representative" to be the "spokesman" of any group is one of the most basic tenets of a democracy. For example, workers' Unions select a representative(s) to negotiate employment terms. The right to "unionize" and authorize a representative to legally speak on behalf of an entire union of individuals is deemed to be a precept of any democracy.
Marc J. Rauch
November 3, 2024
I need one explanation. On what basis these electors are chosen? If the state has more republican electors than that gives a win for the Republican Party and vice versa... and why would democrats chose a republican electors in 2016 for voting trump?. There are 55 electors in California, which party has majority electors? Democrats(28)+ republican(27)=55? Isn’t that unfair for republican?
I’m still confused.
The President is elected by 538 electors from each state + DC. Each state gets to choose the same number of electors as they have Congressmen. So for example, Arizona has 9 federal Representatives and 2 Senators. 9 + 2 is 11 total, so Arizona has 11 votes in the electoral college.
So why won't the government use the popular vote now seeing as it's very easy to count all the popular votes now? The Electoral College sounds like a racket and that my vote doesn't really matter...
I am happy withthe EC. Pray for them.
So to conclude our vote doesn’t count?
Your vote doesn't matter guys stay home.
The faithless elector definitely can change voting result, what if this thing happens?
Why do you have to sprint in your video? Slow down please!
You can control the speed of the video if you feel it is too fast. The average watch time of a TH-cam video is about 3.5 minutes. I’d take more time and slow down, but analytics show that people like the fast paced delivery.
if each state alloted votes by district this election would be way more fair ie Nebraska maine
The electoral college contradicts the one man one vote theory In the US, like in other parts of the world somebody correct me if you think I'm wrong
Too fast paced, perhaps to save time. But better to reduce pace in speaking.
I’m actually still confused
Not fair system anymore due to today’s communication system
This was a left leaning slant on the Electoral College.
No way is that fair...
Depends on who you base it on.
It's nice but you're going too fast
Sorry it’s too fast. Feel free to slow it down in the settings on the video.
It doesn't.
🎉❤ reverse psychological eegineering.❤🎉😅
Abolish the collage
Not constitutional.
Your bias is showing.
Rubbish.. systematic rubbish.