Very popular among the Political Science it. And were gonna do it with George C Edwards book, hopefully read most of it, you get an argument against Electoral College, it lays out all of the common arguments for it as well which is helpful for allowing each person to make up their mind about what they think about this institution genuinely speaking. This is i really do a whole week on this because it is how we elect the president but few americans understand the full extent of the process, if you take a course in the american presidency should probably walk away understanding how this process we used to select our chief executive officer works. Also because it is important and how elections turn out. Just like how we started our discussion on president ial nominations by talking about the history and processes and a deep dive into the process rules, the rule nominations today. We should start out with this the same way with even deeper dive into the single most important institutional process for highly elector president s. You a good reading this weekend why the electoral courage is bad for america. Its in its third edition. In the book edwards explains how the Electoral College works and highlights key problems with this system and lays out the typical problems, today were going to focus on how the symptom works. The outcome of the Electoral College tended to look like. Next time we will turn towards arguments about pros and cons of the Electoral College, consequence is of the Electoral College for how Candidates Campaign and how president ial election shake out. Today i want to accomplish is to fully understand the system, were came from and how it works. There tends to be more involvement than people think. Why do we have the Electoral College in the first place . A lot of that stems from there being a desire among many of the delegates at the Constitutional Convention to compromise and come to some sort of resolution regarding what the terms would be for their new constitutional government. If you recall, we talked about this earlier in the semester, one of the overriding concerns was they cant come to a compromise and produce a new constitutional document. That meant all of them are somewhat inclined to compromise. There is a real fear at the time that if the convention failed to produce a reformed political system for the u. S. , the country would split her into regional parts and more easily conquered by european powers, essentially sitting across the atlantic and eyeing the u. S. Ready for political dysfunction. That inclination to compromise certain states including smaller state interests. They wanted to ensure that those smaller states as well as the slave states that their voices were amplified in the new governmental system. They pushed pretty hard and consistently on that point throughout the debates on most things including the debates on how dislike the president. As i told you during the second week of the glass, most of the debate about the president ial office centered on how the president would be selected or elected. In fact, the convention spent 22 combine days debating this topic and took more than 30 different votes on 30 competing proposals and amendments about how they would do this election. Throughout those 22 days there were three main options debated for how we would elect the president. There were three main camps with some other various sub camps and compromises. There were three main avenues that were considered by different delegates at the convention. One option was to have the president s elected by congress, it was either the house or the senate and they would meet to consider candidates and cast votes to cast the executive. This would solid a lot like a parliamentary system where the Prime Minister is or was formerly a member of the National Legislature and designated as their leader by the Majority Party or coalition. Another option that was laid out was the president should be elected not by the congress but by the state legislatures. That each one would take a vote on their preferred candidate and the states whatever got the most support from the most states would become president. The third main option was a subset of members who really wanted a direct popular vote for the president. Largely arguing that was the only way to make sure the president ial office had any sort of separation from being inclined to just dominated by the states or congress. And of course there was some other proposals, Alexander Hamilton made a proposal about Something Like the Electoral College but in a Electoral College that would choose a president for life and jews knew and when one died. He had a lot of different ideas thrown out there about who would be the present and how he would get the presidency. There are certain concerns that drove questions are on these options. There were certain things that many of the founders were concerned about achieving or avoiding through a method of president ial election. Im in a run through some of these. One of these concerns was avoiding what they referred to as legislative intrigue. And that concern was making sure there is a president s and independence, luggage slight should intrigue was a term of the time about schemes of meng self interest. Just like the president that would have some power for specific member of congress. Instead of someone that would just do a good job or achieve policy. Aims this ties into president ial independence, there was concern that their selection was driven by intrigue you would have a reality where the president would be entirely dependent on the congress to maintain their time in office, that because youre going to have this language about impeachment in the constitution, congressional selection meant that congress could lord over the presidency, threatened to impeach him every time he never did what congress wanted. They would have the power to put somebody in the office and remove them which was seen too dependent on congress. Convention delegates wanted a system where the president had some separation and independence from the legislature. There were two things that worked against direct election by congress. Another concern was voter parochialism, the founders were concerned that the country was too large and people would be to an informed of their potential leaders from any other states then their own, essentially you could have a direct election by state but what you would get is 13 states that would 13 different president s and he would be deadlocked with 13 candidates in a quasitie. Do you see people wanted the public to have some voice, but they wanted a system of selection that would force that consideration of candidates on a broader scale. They had to do something beyond just direct an election in order to get to a place where people would be looking beyond their state borders. Founders were also concerned about a need for intermediary us between the public and the selection of the presidency, a lot of the delegates wanted a direct selection and advocates to direct democracy, other founders were less excited about that. And they were concerned that the people selecting the president directly would have unwise choices, you had to protect against tumult and disorder. He needed a system that had a intermediaries between the public and the election the president. You see these last two concerns, the need for intermediaries pushed back against direct selection. There was also fears of president ial power, different beliefs of what would allow a more empowered president , some delegates thought direct selection would make the president too powerful, he would be the only person who could claim to have the full mantle of the public. Others saw that a president would be too powerful if theyre indirectly selected, as well. State population size was a key concern, small states wanted to make sure that their voices were heard in the new government, under the articles of confederation, small states were able to dominate the process because every state, regardless of size head exactly one vote and most decisions in the articles of confederation required two thirds to three quarters of the articles of congress to be in agreement for anything to happen. Havent small states had veto power over anything larger states wanted to do. And given that most of the population lived in four states at the time of the articles of confederation. The Electoral College structure gave small states a bigger voice than they wouldve had with direct election, but a smaller voice with congressional selection or forms of legislative collection. Small states still werent happy with the compromise, well talk about this in a bit. When the Electoral College fails, that was a key carrot given to the small states to get them to sign on to this Electoral College in the first place. Many of the founders of the Electoral College never produced a majority winner after George Washington, the house of representative would be selecting the president every time. There were also concerns of slave states. They worked really hard to ensure that they were over represented in the new government in other parts of the constitution, as you know. There are the three fifths compromise that went into the constitution, that counted each slave within as slave state as three fifths of a purpose as fires allocating congressional seats. Slave states were going to lose that boost if there was direct popular vote for the president. They were really concerned seeing a system that reflected so they would have a larger voice. And finally, the short term concerns, there was fatigue, the Convention Delegates wanted to get out of there with a new system, they were concerned that failure was the worst possible option, and that led to a lot of people who wanted a different outcome to acquiesce to the concerns of slave states, small states for people that had a really strong opinions and were willing to walk away from the convention if they dont get what they wanted. Those concerns altogether ended up in a Electoral College system. Its a really messy compromise. The electoral closs college did not it did reflect those key concerns in the previous slide. Because its funnel through the state and its allocated to states some power and giving congress a final say. No one was fully happy with it but its nothing that everyone was totally upset about to walk away from the convention plenty of delegates walked away from the convention now that nearly walked away over the Electoral College. Usually over some of that. Before running through all the Electoral College actually works they will have questions in terms of clarification or otherwise . I have a question. Which Founding Fathers were in favor of a direct popular vote . Its hard to categorize them besides the one who are more committed to more of a direct democracy, they didnt come from any specific parts of the country a kind of we are randomly distributed. The leader of that faction these were the people that were the least satisfied with the constitution in many respects where the leader of that faction was upset sort of from day one of the convention. Because he was hoping to go there and push for a system of government that was legislatively driven driven that had a pure portion of the population had a lot more public voice. He was sort of throughout the convention appalled over over again when those ideas were compromised towards delegates that we are concerned about more power concerns about specific constituencies or states. Does that make sense . Totally thanks you have to go and read James Madisons notes to pull out where all those people were individually. Yeah. Even then they worked really hard and end up shaping the system to being more democratic than it wouldve otherwise wouldve been. He refused to sign in the end it wouldve looked he made it look a lot better than it could have. Because he had determination. Other questions . I had a question if thats okay. Im pretty familiar with the compromise but i was just curious how did it come to three facebook . Thats super specific yeah i know why it is i dont really know why specifically it was that. I dont know why was three fifths like so many things the convention we have very limited no taking on the nature of the debates. And very from moment to moment. Is a handful of people that were delegates that really kept a journal or a diary during it and most of those are very spotty we might have these gone and their diary says attended convention. Today James Madison tried to talk about as complete notes as we could, it was just him scribbling 18 hours a day while things are going on. He knows capture what everyone said and every moment. You have him talking about them debating, things their three fifths compromise but not really going into one of the different specific fractions thought out. Three fares might have started good for everyone. Thats often how things worked at the convention. They would decide that that number sounded satisfactory to everyone. Something also like why two year terms for the house you know, it was if someone propose for someone said thats too much. Its too long in someone else propose one and they said thats not long enough, let someone set to and they said its. Good proam matter of the Southern States being like the south came with a proposal that slaves counted as full individuals which would really increase their part in the congress. And theres some members where they want to count it all three fifths sounded like he was good enough for enough people to say fine. Why was three fifths remains a mystery unless someone has done some really good historical work that i dont know about. Other questions . All right. Lets run through how the Electoral College works. Stepbystep and with the outcomes like that ive been like. Right now you have 538 electoral votes as part of the college. The formula is very simple. Each state gets to just a number of senators they have plus the number of house seats they have. Another state has ten house members could have 12 state by population whats more states getting heavier because they get that to seat boost her to vote loosen about how small they are and smaller states ratcheted down because its not proportional. The district of columbia gets three votes no matter what under constitutional amendment prior to the summer between i remember now in the 1970s the district of columbia didnt get to vote in president ial elections that was an amendment that they would get three. At some point would become awkward is at some point d. C. Might be large enough such as the life of washington d. C. Being under or non represented in the government of where they go various other parts of the United States you get a majority of the votes which is 270 notice that 538 you could have a tie it is possible to have an Electoral College coming out to two 69 to 69 thats a nightmare for everyone but you need to 70 at minimum to become a president if you dont come to two 70 doesnt matter if you have more than your opponent you can have a way it split in such a way that no one gets a majority and therefore no one wins at the Electoral College stage. How many votes gets relocated every ten years after the census just like were real allocate how seats because the formula is two plus the number how seats. If it were you go from having six electoral votes to seven in other states may gain or lose or just like they will gain or lose seats in the electoral house. When all is said and done votes for the president are cast by the 538 electors in order for there to be a winner decided. This is essentially what the outcome of the process can look like this is what we call a cartographer of the 2016 electoral vote from the Electoral College. Theres a number of things to notice what i like to show this because it shows the size of the states based on the number of votes they have based on the land area and is an accurate representation of the size of each state and Electoral College. It also allows you more clearly to see the decisiveness or non decisiveness of an Electoral College outcome usual landslide out here it lights up fantastic and blue red in a close election like 2016 you see fairly close sizes between the red in the blue states. There was a fairly close election. Theres something also notice here if there is a number of people here got electoral votes who were not Hillary Clinton or donald trump. Because under the constitution which we will talk about more in this second and the constitution electoral electors could vote for whoever they want as long as that person is 35 alive and a natural citizen of the United States. In addition to the 227 votes for clinton, and the 304 votes for trump, you have a number of other people who received votes. As you can see here at the bottom washington was not having it with this election ron paul received a vote in texas as the john kasich, and Bernie Sanders received one from an elector in hawaii. These people are called faithless electors which will call talk about on a minute. Ok, who are these electors and where do they come from . The process actually starts with an Election Year well before election day in which potential electors are nominated to stand on the ballot. This nominations process of who will be the 535 electors selected by each state is up to each state. He still can set their own rules for who these electors might be. Typically what most states do is allow the state Party Organizations to nominate a sufficient number of electorates. Four time by utah the state Democratic Party will nominate six people to stand on the ballot as a democratic electors any state Republican Party will nominate eight people. It is the people that you are voting for. Who are these people technically . Who gets nominated to be Electoral College elector . The only rule is that they cannot be someone holding a federal office. A member of congress, a president , cabinet secretary anyone holding federal elected or appointed office cannot be in an Electoral College elector. Typically theyre donors with long Service Records to the state party and its typically a reward for having worked hard for that states party. You get to have this semi ceremonial role where after election day if youre parties carry winds you get to coast electoral votes. We often referred to these people as a slate of electors. Well talk about in a minute most selectors in most states, theyre likely an election day, these people have been nominated. When you turn up to vote on election day or vote by mail or whatever version of voting youre doing this year youre not actually voting for the candidate for president or Vice President. Even though thats whose name is on the ballot. We are actually voting for is for one or the other slate of electors. That is the actual outcome that comes from this election if you vote for joe biden, youre actually voting for the six democratic electors if youre gonna for donald trump whatever the six republican electors have been nominated in that state. Election day by congressional statute takes place on the first tuesday after the first monday of november. That since 1845 before that there was no standard election day. It states voting sometime for than the nine months before which was chaotic thats why they set a standard election day. There is no constitutional guarantee each state selects their elected by popular vote. In present day, all 50 states plus the district of columbia how popular statewide votes to select to select their electors for the Electoral College. It does not guaranteed because it is not been challenged its feasible under the constitution that you can do it a different way. In fact in the 18th or 19th century, some states had a state legislature actually vote to select the electors for the Electoral College. Its only really been since 18 forties or 18 fifties that its been routine, that most states use popular vote to select their electors. In all likelihood if a state tried to change this, so want to bring a lawsuit in court and probably the courts would guarantee a popular vote for president within each state. There is definitely guarantee yet because no one is tested listen while. In some states the names of the electors that youre voting to put in the Electoral College, in some states their names are on the ballot next to the president s name. Order candidates name. In most states they are not. Youre actually never know who these people are under the state Party Official defines it. In the case of utah to utah governor. When a state governor manages the election so much go look and see if they could find the names of the electors for utah on the Governors Office website. You should know because itll say donald trump or mike pence under joe biden and Kamala Harris you may never actually know who the electors are unless you Pay Attention to what happens in december and january. All but do states then select their electors as a winner take all vote. That is the candidate who receives the most votes in the state gets 100 of the electors in that state appointed to the Electoral College. Theres two exceptions to this main in a basket. Their first two electors handed out to the statewide winner. And then one elector handed out per winner in each of the congressional district. Sometimes you see nebraska victor electoral votes, for instance in 2016 you had three of maines vote go to Hillary Clinton and one went to donald trump, 2008 you went for Nebraska College votes went to john mccain and one too barack obama for the Third District of nebraska. Do you have a question . I was just wondering, is there a reason that inversions happened where a president can lose the popular vote but when the Electoral College due to the fact that because of faithless electors . It is never because of faithless electors, i will say that. That has never caused a person to loose Electoral College, sometimes it is because of specifically of a winner take all. There are other times where the popular vote and the Electoral College are lined up whereas if you had every state do it then the popular vote wouldnt loose Electoral College. Thats example of 1976 were jimmy carter when the popular vote and the Electoral College narrowly, but if hed done it with maine and nebraska the main race and they dont light up is because Electoral College is not directly proportional to the votes in each state for a variety of reasons well talk about next time. The big one being that every state gets a base of two electoral votes and then its proportional after. We also talk about next time the number of electoral votes is not representative of a turnout. Some states have high turnout, some have low. But states dont gain or lose electoral votes based on the number of people who vote. It heavily skews the relationship between total votes coming out of a state and electoral votes coming out of a state. Disarming since . Yes. That is what happens on election day. But it is not overreact because even once election day happens, and within a couple of weeks, typically most states have certified the winners therefore certified who the electors are from each state, though this Election Year you may see some get delayed quite a bit because you might not necessarily have all the votes counted for a couple of weeks after election day which will push back the certification process. Once all the votes have been counted, the actual electors meet on the first monday of the second wednesday of december. If that isnt confusing enough, they meet the middle of december on monday. Usually the second or third monday of december. Congress has state the state by statue, they could change when electors meet at anytime. That is a purely congressional decision, it used to be later now it is earlier. They all meet in their respective capitals, usually an office, in utah they usually meet in that utah State Capitol building. To this day they still cast large ballots that are very fancy, writing the names, usually it has the name of the winners printed on them and then crossed out in front of on something else. These big fancy parchment ballots at the electors sign and fill out, and then they vote two times, two ballots and one ballot for who should be president , and a second ballot for the person they think should be second bars those two ballots are not distinguished. Those belts are certified by a state official and mailed to the president of the senate. Who can tell me the president of the senate is . The Vice President. So technically they mail them to the Vice President which can get awkward when the Vice President is also on the ballot or in the case of al gore, super awkward for him as this process plays out because he plays a key role in the certification process. Is that it . No. We are still not in. The coat votes have been cast and bailed to congress, nothing is official until Congress Counts the votes. Specifically, they count at 1 pm on january 6th which is very specific, eastern time, not mountain time. The if january six is a sunday, they kick it to the next day. What happens is the president of the senate, there is that Vice President again, presides over joint section of congress and the members of the senate. This would be the new congress. This is the incoming congress, the congress that was elected on november 3rd this year and will actually starts to come into being january 3rd and we have a new balance of power. And then that congress is the First Official joint of business, literally what happens is usually four to six members of the house of the senate are designated as having a ceremonial position of reading the ballots, literally they are stacked in envelopes on the house diocese and they take turns opening them, reading off the tallies, handing them to the clerk of the house to be verified and then the Vice President announces and certifies those votes as having counted. Congress can reject or a challenge ballots that are sent to it by the states, if both the representative and a senator object. Basically this process involves, you open about, you start from the beginning, they read them in alphabetical order by state. Say it is alabamas term, they open it and read the belt. They will see that alabama has i cant even remember how many electoral votes they have, six or seven. And they cast all six or seven for donald trump or president and mike pence for Vice President then they hand it to the clerk who reads it again and then it is hand to the Vice President. They are looking for anybody to object. It can then be a former challenge and it evolves back into their respective chambers and they vote on the resolution of rejection. If both the house and senate reject the states ballots, it is thrown out and it does not count. This has happened in times of American History where Electoral College ballots have been thrown out by the congress. This is the part where Congress Gets to be the ultimate decisionmaker, if they were unified, they can throw out all of the Electoral College votes, there is nothing keeping them from doing that. But it has never been done that way. Its dealt with periods of time when no one won a majority and they were compelled to step in and make a choice, but never aggressively. To date. Are we done yet . No. 270 accepted votes and you have a winner, otherwise the house gets to decide if nobody gets to two 70. The house likes the president among the top five finishers in the Electoral College. Each state gets one vote. It basically means that each of the states devolve into their delegations, if you are utah with four members of the utah delegation, they sit down and decide who theyre going to vote for with their one vote, other states do the same. They get to decide their own internal mechanisms, but a lot of states have it, unless their decision is unanimous they do not cast a vote. They have to pick among the top five finishers for president. They can only vote for people that receive votes in the Electoral College and the people who were in the top five. This was how the founders thought they are going to select a president in washington. They thought that no one would ever win a majority in the Electoral College. It would be like five to ten people who would get the Electoral College votes, they wouldnt go to congress, congress would certify the votes and then they would sit down and decide among the top five finishers who would be president. And then they would go and do it. It never really worked that way. It only kind of work that way onetime. And it was for an odd reason. But it has never worked that way because the Electoral College has been more unanimous than they ever thought. The senate on the other hand selects the Vice President , they use a normal voting process and they all get his or her own vote and whoever gets the majority winds. But you have good absolute majority, that means if you have a bunch of states that do not cast votes and nobody gets 26 votes among the 50 states in the house, you do not have a president elect. It is much easier to get a majority in the senate. Youre more likely to get a Vice President ial elect. Is this person president cant . No. Now there is a gap. There is an awkward gap where on january 6th you have a president elect, that person is not sworn in until the 20th, they are sworn in on 20th, even if it is a sunday. But they hold the inauguration on that day unless it is a sunday. All sorts of contingencies builtin here, if no president has been certified as Vice President elect, and the president is deadlocked or some other disaster occurs or the president elect dies or becomes incapacitated, Vice President becomes president of the United States on january 20th. Congress can then still pick the president up to sun amount of time. In the meantime, the Vice President becomes president. If the Vice President is also not certified, were then supposedly the speaker of the house becomes president but this has never actually occurred or tested. This has been decided by statute and maybe unconstitutional. We dont know. Couple of important details, electors are not necessarily bound that is important to say. You could be a republican elector in a state where the republican nominee winds and you decide to vote for someone else, that is what we saw in 2016. Most elections we see one of those. But there are some contingencies. Each party typically requires to take an oath to vote for the nominee, if you want to keep continue having a relationship with your state party, this is what you do. You have to be faithful with financial penalties. In fact a Supreme Court this year upheld those state penalty requirements. At the same time, an elector could say states like colorado will find new tens of thousands of dollars and put you in jail if you are an Electoral College elector and you vote against the certified popular vote in your state. But your vote still counts. You may be fined and go to jail, but if you believe that strongly, perhaps he would still vote that way and your vote would still get counted by congress that way. Any question about if anybody dies during this process . This is one of the most horrifying aspects of our system, in some respects it is okay and in other respects it is a complete nightmare. If a candidate dies before election day on november 3rd, that is okay. Because the parties can nominate somebody else and they automatically replace the did candidate on the ballot. Ballots have already been printed, say joe biden died tomorrow, and all likelihood the Democrat Party would nominate Kamala Harris. And pick somebody else to be the Vice President. In most states the ballots have been printed so you would be voting for Kamala Harris, not joe biden, but you would have to vote for joe biden even though youre vote with count for Kamala Harris. So wilted lease move, parties can renominate someone in a matter of hours. If the president elect dies after election day, say joe biden or donald trump win the election and it is not the first monday after the second wednesday of december when electors meet, if one of them dice, the Electoral College can now vote for whoever they want. They can still vote for dead joe biden or detrimental trump, but those votes will be thrown out by congress. They can vote for whoever they feel like. Presumably they would vote for the Vice President , or Vice President elect in that case. So if donald trump died they would vote for mike pence, then they would pick whoever they want to be the vp. And in the end they would probably just pick a Vice President. But thats outwork. The problem really comes in if the Electoral College has already voted, mailed the ballots to congress and say the president elect from the Electoral College dies on christmas, this is a problem. Now those ballots have already been cast. Congress is compelled throw them out because they cannot by law like somebody used it. It means that congress has to pick somebody. The house of representatives has to pick somebody who finishes in the top five in Electoral College which may just be the only person we see receive electoral votes in the Electoral College. In which case you have a lot of house members who refused to vote. And then you would have no president elect and the Vice President would become president. This is really a nightmare if both the president Vice President ial winner die between december 15th and january 6th. Because congress would have to throw out all the ballots, and in a position where they probably would not want to vote for the losers to become president. So they would have to turn over the government to the speaker of the house. And its likely to be checked vastly hook streaming or or extremely. Oh i dont even know thats a constitutional decision. Thats a huge oversight in the system by the way. Theres all sorts of contingencies if a candidate dies, it could be fine or you could have a disaster. This only happens once in 1872, or risk really passed away he had lost the election to he will seize us grant. Is electors in the Electoral College voted for whoever he they wanted the americans they had in one any way. People voted for horse cool even though he was dead and they threw out those votes and they counted him. This process has been amended a few times, it is largely the same as it was in 1789 with some changes. You have the after mentioned 12th amendment and 18 oh for which separated Electoral College voting between the president and Vice President formally instead of having an electors vote for two. Yet the 14th amendment 1968 that says Electoral College votes can be reduced or thrown out if a state limits the right of people to vote. Thats one of the most aggressive pieces of language in favor of Voting Rights in the constitution that congress is supposed to be compelled they should take a states electoral votes if the inappropriately restrict peoples vote its never been enforce the no one ever brought a capable lawsuit to do it. All you do wonder with a lot of the controversies about voting restrictions happening in some states, if you would see Something Like this in the relatively near future a case about taking a states College Votes away because of them play around with Voter Registration voter access. The electoral count act which set up formalized for challenges in the ambiguities in the casting of votes. There is no law on how to deal with the Electoral College in from a statutory standpoint. The 20th amendment in 1933 move the date of the Electoral College is meeting. The counting of votes and inauguration up to january. We all the stuff that happened in february in march not happens in december in january in part to make the governmental system less awkward we will talk with travel technology and speed going up there is no need for six months to travel to d. C. And start to create some contingency plans for what happens if a candidate dies. The president ial succession act in 1947 really put some real teeth behind what happens if a candidate or president dies. Largely because the congress was really spooked by fdrs death. Only a couple months into his fourth term. They all realized he could have easily died several months earlier after he had been elected before he was inaugurated and they wouldnt have had any clue what to do. At that point in time, in terms of filling some of these holes. The 22nd amendment limited the president to just two terms. President can only be certified and voted for by the Electoral College twice. And that the 23rd amendment came in 1961 gave the district of columbia three votes in the Electoral College. As this process always worked out, . No. Theres been plenty of anomalies. It can be a number of things i take this to mean any election where things didnt work out the way that people expected it or planned, with the system were gonna mismatch between a popular vote in an Electoral College and or you had other anomalies that required congress or someone else to take relatively extreme steps. Or where the design of the Electoral College team to play a major role in who was able to win or not on an election. Day you can see here theres been at least eight president ial elections where there was a significant anomalies caused by the system itself. That are worth discussion. First of which is the election of 1800 which jefferson and burn time for the Electoral College because all the jeffersonians cast two ballots for jefferson and burr respectively. But because at that time, there was no distinguishing between which paul it was intended to be president and Vice President imran knew that burn was supposed to be jeffersons running mate. We had no winner coming out of the Electoral College now so representatives had to choose a winner and it took the house 36 votes and several weeks to ultimately beat back federal attempts to supplant jefferson with burr and jefferson became president and burn became public enemy number one to all the jeffersonians. 1824, no candidate won a majority in the Electoral College. We have five candidates on the ballot each of them at different Regional Support and no one prevailed. Andrew jackson won the popular vote with 41 short of a majority but only at 31 of the Electoral College. Lost the election despite having plurality on both counts when henry clay came in third directed his supporters to back John Quincy Adams pushing him over the top in the house. And seen as a kind of a big problem by andrew jackson. We thought he should be president. Fast forward 12 years, to the election of 1836. A number of Democratic Party electives refused to support Richard Johnson as van burens president ial partner. Richard johnson does not a senate has to take a vote on will become vice they optimally decide to make johnson Vice President anyway. Here is a case where things didnt work out. As planned or very smoothly. The election of 1876 is a notable one. Samuel told the eventual loser of the election democrat, when the popular vote in fact when the majority of the vote in the election with 51 . They were thrown out which means he nor haze has a majority the debate over what to do dragged out for months but democrats being very upset that they lost an election that they thought they rightfully one. Both in the popular vote and the Electoral College. There were threats of another civil war ultimately they did the compromise of 1877 cave the where democrats agree to give the presidency to hayes in return for the end of reconstruction in the south. Without the Electoral College, reconstruction might have had more satisfactory and. Election of 1888. Or cleveland wins the popular vote 49 of the voters reelection effort loses the Electoral College to benjamin harrison. At 48 that got the popular vote. This result was caused by harrisons tiny 1 win in new york state. With cleveland sweeping the more rural in Southern States overwhelmingly with harrison not even on the ballot a number of those states. The election of 1860 is one that doesnt get talked about because if you look at the results it looks pretty clear. We won the popular vote but narrowly he won 49. 7 of the vote to nixons 49. 6 of the vote. About a one tenth of 1 margin between the two and a popular vote. We like the Electoral College you want decisively. This is so close theres so much going on, how nixon was screwed out of the election or a popular vote victory. John f. Kennedy won the election by hundred thousand votes which nation why it is a microscopic edge. The outcome might have hinged on some anomalies of some states. In alabama they refused to put nixon on the ballot. They did this by taking all the candidates names off the ballot and just putting the electors names on the ballot. Not really indicating which elector supported. Five of the electors came out and said that they supported kennedy. The other six refused to see who they supported partially in all probability because they were anti kennedy delegates. Six of the anti kennedy delegates won, five of the kennedy delegates one. Six of the votes went to a Third Party Candidate was not even running an election campaign. Because they just dont want to vote for kennedy. But they couldnt bring themselves to vote for nixon. In a fair system, nixon and kennedy wouldve been on the ballot as nominees and nixon wouldve won the state and won 11 electoral votes. In alabama. As it stands neither nixon or kennedy were given mix and probably lost out on 11 electoral votes in alabama. And probably another seven or eight in mississippi were something similar happened. In all likelihood he probably won the popular vote in 1960 but he still wouldve lost the Electoral College. In 2000 as the least probably you all know ill gore won the vote but lost Electoral College bush with the votes disputed. If any of you ever followed would happen in 2000 not only did he clearly when the popular vote he may very well of one florida as well. But the recount was halted by the Supreme Court will never actually know one florida but that recount ended up being decisive because he couldve swung enough Electoral College votes in either direction to give the presidency a winner. He was the 19 century they would probably just turn out those ballots and congress wouldve made a decision and early 2001. He will probably ended up in the same outcome they probably wouldve carried a day and installed george will be bushes president. We have course the election of 2016 was another one we had a mixed match between the popular vote with Hillary Clinton winning 2 points more than down trump donald trump edging out clinton in the Electoral College by virtue of winning midwestern states very narrowly against clintons running up the tally in some of the larger urban states. Okay questions about this process . How works and how it plays out . Its a lot i had a question. Go ahead. How did a president ial candidate selecting their electors for each state work for which parties were they . Free parties do you just had a state legislator nominate supposedly wise folks. But there are nominating slate of partisan folks by 1796. In 1789 and 1792 when you everyone was voting for washington. Even then, he had partisans on each side because there was a dispute of who should be Vice President as early as 1789 so we had people fighting the state legislators meir is like for five other people and adams ended up having the most support. By 1796 essentially parties within the state legislatures running the show and nominating electors. There was a popular vote or in the case of the preponderance of states early on they selected the winners in the legislature my vote and gain partisan that the electors got their own mechanisms. 2018 thirties you have solid Party Systems they look much the same since the 18 thirties. Yeah thanks matt yeah any other questions . Well really speak up . Miss probably the most complicated system of election in the world. I dont think you could find other election system that would take that many slides just to explain the process. In most places voting is a simple as you go and vote and someone. Winds Electoral College is a special an unusual system. The quick addendum on the Vice President as we return to our agenda from last week. Vice president an afterthought in the Electoral College. They just have him coming in second as Vice President , they wanted a Vice President in case the Vice President the president who died. The whole point of having to vote in Electoral College in the constitutional design was not to pick a Vice President but to force electors to vote for someone that from their state. One of the things i didnt show miss lights, one of the few things that binds Electoral College electors is that they are not allowed to cast ballots for two people from the same state. A party can never nominate of president and Vice President from the same state because the electors would not be allowed to vote for one of them. They would have to vote for someone else. That was done early on to voice selectors, they thought they would opaque their favorite person from a state. But then they would have to think hard on their second ballot, someone who like from another state, that would elevate someone else like a George Washington or john adams or thomas jefferson. People would come National Citizens and leaders at that point. Obviously did not work out that way, that led to the 12th amendment which led to this set up where they cast Vice President ial ballots. That rule about not being able to vote from your state, today essentially the Vice President s biggest role is that the vp elect can become president if no president is chosen. But even if you have some sort of president ial level, its unlikely youre going to get a Vice President elect nominee because the senate has clear voting rules. In the house you can have just a bunch of states deadlocked and not cast ballots in the formal house of representatives in the case of a Electoral College failure. And someone is going to get the most votes, that person becomes Vice President , so even if the house does not pick a Vice President , then he could also interesting and unintended way, Vice President continues to serve his role by saving us for not having a present just by being alive. Also we can think about the Vice President sometimes playing a Important Role in candidates Electoral College strategies. It remains common but not always true that president s will select a Vice President ial candidate who they think will help them win a key state in the Electoral College, you see this sometimes but not other times. Hillary clinton because she wanted to ensure she won virginia, that would give them a tiny enough bump in virginia for her to be decisive. Weve seen this at other times, lots of candidates for Vice President in terms of helping the Vice President both mike pence and Kamala Harris are from clear partisan states where their presence on the ballot is not really necessary to push those states over the top. That is the addendum on the Vice President. Any final questions or comments . I had another question. Go for it. On the 14th amendment you talked about how theoretically congress could throwaway states that denied voting access. Would that play out by congressional statue or by a court decision. That is by court. Congress can throw them out they dont need a reason. But the 14th badminton gives the public an opportunity to challenge Electoral College votes through the federal court system by arguing that that state unduly restricted certain people from voting. The outcome was unfair, so those electoral vote should not count. That is a second mechanism. Now potentially, the Supreme Court can also throw out Electoral College votes. It is a second avenue. But there has never been an attempt that got very far. Some of the lawsuits in florida around the 2000 election and with everything that went wrong in florida in 2000, that centered on the 14th of and. Mid both sides were able to use the 14th amendment. They are saying they should be thrown out and or there should be a recount. It seems like certain people or disenfranchised at the state and county level. The bush people were making an argument that likewise, you should recount they were trying to push forward a recount for three or four counties where things were bad, and bush was saying if youre going to recount three or four counties you have to really count the entire state. That means it would not have time because if you recount it in some counties and not others this was a violation of a protection clause of the 14th amendment. So it came into play on both sides. You just havent seen a lot of strong efforts for that specific part of the 14th amendment. You have to imagine will happen at some point. Basically allows for an initial avenue for throwing out Electoral College votes. Congress has its own avenue, it doesnt need a reason. Other questions . All right, with that i will see you all on wednesday. If you are able to, please try to watch tomorrow there is an announcement about the presidency. It should be an interesting discussion of the presidency. See you all later. John f. Kennedy was the first and remains the only catholic to be elected president of the United States. During the 1916 Campaign Many protestant groups publicly opposed him fearing his influence of the pope and Catholic Church on his presidency. Up next, from september 12th, 1960, democratic nominee john f. Kennedy on the topic of church and state, religious freedom and tolerance. He spoke to a meeting of houston ministers, paid for by the Kennedy Johnson texas campaign, the broadcast includes an extended question and answer, part of the