Problems with the Electoral College ft. Extra Credits

The Electoral College has some problems, but maybe not the ones you were thinking of.

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All clips used for fair use commentary, criticism, and educational purposes. See Hosseinzadeh v. Klein, 276 F.Supp.3d 34 (S.D.N.Y. 2017); Equals Three, LLC v. Jukin Media, Inc., 139 F. Supp. 3d 1094 (C.D. Cal. 2015).

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[disneyjunkie]

Me, an Iowan minding my business:
Presidential candidates every 4 years: HI YES WE CARE ABOUT YOU AND CORN A LOT

[danieldevito]

How about this, and hear me out, we determine the presidency by a strange woman lying in a pond distributing a sword.

[williamjones]

"They would know the local candidates and not care about the national ones." Boy did that flip flop big time.

[qclod]

"Contrary to popular belief"
it's actually the electoral belief.

[callmeval]

I literally remember a US government teacher telling me that faithless electors didn't exist and I had points taken off of my paper. -_- I hated that guy.

[iammrbeat]

A 25-minute video explaining some problems with the Electoral College, and that's just the tip of the iceberg.

[reincarNed]

"They'd be familiar with their local candidates but wouldn't care about the national candidates." Oh god the irony is thicker than a bowl of oatmeal.

[BrianHartman]

It's interesting to me that the framers' assumption turned out to be exactly the opposite of how things are today. The voters generally know the presidential candidates a lot better than they know the local candidates.

[schalear]

Legal Eagle just going around collaborating with everyone. Don't stop these collaborations are very nice and would definitely love more.

[moonchild]

the fact that in the US you can change electoral laws right before an election, and have that law applied immediately is insane

[Zgle]

"Bailiff, tackle this man" is my new nonsensical counter-argument

[thebrowneyedgirl]

The fact that electors can go against the popular vote is something I only think about every four years and it never fails to make me nauseous

[foolishmortals]

Founding Fathers: We need to protect smaller states.

Us: What about California with 40 million people?

Founding Fathers: There's HOW MANY PEOPLE in WHAT?

[johnopalko]

I learned this way (way, way, way...) back in high school. It was confusing and boring, and the attitude was, "This is the way it is. Learn it and shut up."
Now, lo these many years later, you explain it and propose thought experiments: "Suppose we change this. What would it look like? Suppose we change that. Would it be better or worse, and for whom?"
I think I've learned more from your videos than I ever learned in Civics class. I know I've enjoyed it a lot more.
Keep up the good work.

[dominomasked]

I didn't realize how much this channel needed a real* bailiff-tackling. Well played!

[geoffstrickler]

The EC has outlived all of its original intents. It’s long past time to eliminate it. I can go into detail on each of its intended purposes, and why each no longer applies if necessary, but some of those are already covered in the video.

The NPVI/NPVC mostly addresses the problem, but unless enough states join to put it over 350 Electors represented, then it’s a fragile compact that could fall apart on he whims of the legislature on one or two large states. I would welcome the NPVI as an interim method of effectively eliminating the EC, but the proper long-term solution is a constitutional amendment either eliminating it, or requiring proportional allocation of electors in every state.

[Cage]

Legal Eagle sending a bean person bailiff to tackle Matt from Extra Credits has made my day. I'm a fan and subscriber of both channels so this was a delightful and unexpected little crossover.

[kbubblingtime]

I propose the Thunderdome Voting System. Two candidates enter, one candidate leaves.

[erinodonnell]

If anyone’s curious about the math or how all this works out or of examples of alternative voting systems that could more closely represent the popular vote, CGP Grey has a whole series on this. It’s a few years old but still great.

[MrGreensweightHist]

Even assuming no faithless electors and the electors being forced to represent the popular vote of a given sate, there is still no way to justify a system in which one person's vote can count FOUR TIMES as much as a person in another state