Why do we use the Electoral College system?

Great video! Using it for our homeschool. 😊

So many people don’t understand the electoral college system. Thanks for a concise overview of it.

The population density differences between urban and rural counties are why I’ve been advocating for a state level Electoral College system. I want politicians to have to listen to everyone. Despite living in an urban area, I empathize more with rural Americans who have had their voices gone unheard for decades. I also empathize with my fellow urbanites who tend to lean more right, but are drowned out by urban liberal types. The absolute brilliant minds of our Founding Fathers were spot on when they wrote the Federalist Papers, especially James Madison when he wrote Federalist 10 and warned about the mischiefs of faction. I really should thank my AP US Government teacher during my senior year for teaching the class so well that I still have my notes in the giant 150 sheet notebook she required everyone to have. She did such an excellent job explaining the nuances of the Electoral College that I think she would use your video as a primer for her kids to learn about the Electoral College if she doesn’t have one of her own. This video was a flashback to the excellent lectures I had in 2012-13. I consider myself fortunate to have studied 8th grade US History and 12th grade US Government during election years. It made all of the content I learned much more solidified in my memory. This was a great video for a brief breakdown on an important topic in American politics. Kudos to you, David. Thank you for taking the time out of your day to make this video.

What are your thoughts no this video? Did it help you better understand why we don't use the popular vote? For people who think we should use a straight popular vote how do you feel about each state receiving two Senate seats regardless of population size?

I'm teaching an election class in the fall. This is so helpful!

A lot of people do not understand the Electoral College system. Thank you for clearing up any misunderstanding for people. This video was a great and clear overview of this concept.

I understand both sides of this and have two thoughts: 1. Many counties Democrats won those years are suburbs & that often decides the state winner. For example, Democrats win the whole Bay Area not just San Francisco while in Texas the suburban counties vote Republican. 2. The urban areas going Democrat is a long phenomenon but in the Bill Clinton elections, many rural counties in the South voted for him. Even Barack Obama won rural counties in Ohio & Iowa that Donald Trump subsequently won. So yes there is an urban rural split everywhere in the western world these days but in the US, there are always nuances.

The same reason MLB World Series champions are best of 7 games and not total runs. The team that wins 4 are the champions. It doesn’t matter if the other team accumulates a far greater amount of runs overall, it only matters that they out score them by 1 per game. For example: Cubs win 10 to 0 Game 2 Cubs win 7 to 0 Game 3 Cubs win 13 to 0 Game 4 Yankees win 1 to 0 Game 5 Yankees win 2 to 1 Game 6 Yankees win 1 to 0 Game 7 Yankees win 2 to 1 Yankees are the World Series Champions, even though the Cubs out scored them 32 to 6. The Yankees won 4 games.

You said nothing about history. Just about opinion. You are projecting modern concerns to the founding fathers without sources or justification.