Video: Electing a US President in Plain English
By leelefever on July 30, 2008 - 10:44am.
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Length: 03:43
Date Produced: Jul 30 2008
Views: 14321 reads
Notes:
A short and simple guide to understanding the U.S. election process. Also shared on YouTube, Vimeo, and dotSUB (subtitles). Need the transcript?
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Strong work!
And way to avoid saying 'electoral college' and keep any cynicism about the process out of your voice. Somebody already Dugg it here:
http://digg.com/2008_us_elections/Electing_a_U_S_President_in_Plain_Engl...
Great!
Great stuff as always guys!
Patrick
WOW
Hi Lee,
Excellent explanation - as always. Especially to a non-American like me it explains all the detail in a very nice and clear way.
Frnk
Great Video
Hi Lee,
Great Video. I send people to your site all the time to watch your plain english videos.
On thing about your site that I just noticed. Those of us that use Twitter know that it is very flaky, and sometimes super slow. Because of its position on your page, it caused a very slow response time for your page to load.
Just an FYI!!! GREAT WORK!
Great informational video....
Good video guys! I think this would be great to share with a high school as well as college students...I know i got a few more knots in my brain from this video :) good job!
Mark told me you guys were really good!
HOORAY!!!!
Thanks for taking my suggestion seriously!!!! I'm so glad you guys did this show. It's really needed!
Another Superb Explanation!
Lee & Sachi -- Fantastic job, again! I plan to use this in my public speaking class in the fall. I'll have my students outline how they remember/think the process works, then show them your video. It's a superb example of a short informational speech, complete with visual aids to help comprehension and memory.
Barbara Nixon
Georgia Southern University
Awesome Work, Again!
But what's the deal with Nebraska and Maine?
Nebraska and Maine
These states use "proportional voting" as opposed to "winner-take-all" like all the other states. Nebraska and Maine have a normal state-wide vote, but also factor-in the votes across districts. This way, it is possible for the state's electors to be split across two candidates instead of one. This may help too.
Nebraska and Maine
Ah, thanks!
Now, why don't other states do it *that* way?
Long out of school...
Don't the electors actually get to vote their conscious as well? meaning that just because the state's majority votes for 1 candidate, it doesn't mean the elector HAS to submit a vote for that candidate...
Faithless Electors
Yes, you're right. Electors are people that represent the state in the election and normally vote according to their state's votes. However, they don't have to do so. It's called being a "faithless elector" and it rarely happens.
Nice
Nice video, but this is how it _really_ works:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SprsUaX5j78
http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/10432334/was_the_2004_election_st...
Great Stuff
As usual you have done it again. It just goes to show we don't have to make the explanation technical just keep it simple. I love your stuff keep it coming.
video
Hi guys,
Wow I love seeing your work but all I know is the obvious. It's Lee's voice and I think Sachi's hands? I am interested in
exactly who does what. Love your simple style and clear explainations. No wonder you stuff is so popular!
Voices and Hands
Hi Lee! Yup it's my voice and usually my hands. Sometimes Sachi's hands are involved, especially when you see somene writing something. Sachi's our on-camera writer. :)
Congrats on this one
As an educator I love your stuff but this one is exceptional, I sent it to almost all the teachers I work with for them to share this fall. Thanks for all the great stuff to help teaching everyone in such a clean and clear method!
I always vote for the triangles!
Remember to vote even if you are an American living abroad. You vote is counted with your state of last residence. Visit votefromabroad.org to register as an USA ex-pat and make your vote count.
Lee, solid solid work as always. Do we get a Canadian version next ;-)?
Oh yeah, who are these electors anyhow?
Can you explain who the electors actually are and where they actually do their voting (if at all)? and how does one become an elector? I suspect they are party cronies on a junket but maybe i am cynical ;-).
The Electors
Hey Dave! The electors are nominated by each each state's political parties. Then they... ah hell, here's a quote from Wikipedia:
Electors meet in their respective state capitals (or in the case of
Washington, D.C., within the District) on the first Monday after the
second Wednesday in December, at which time they cast their electoral
votes on separate ballots for President and Vice President.
Hope that helps!
Thanks - and here's a link
Well-done, Lee ... and you beat me to my writing an overview, although I do have a list of states with number of electors. I'll sit back and check out the questions your post generates!
Here's the link at About.com ... http://uspolitics.about.com/b/2008/07/31/the-electoral-college-in-plain-...
Fantastic!
You guys are awesome! I loved this! Thank-you so much for doing this video.
I wish I could share it with every new voter.
Lynda
Democracy?
The questions that I still have are:
Why does the US elect their president undemocratically?
What would it take to institute a one-person one-vote system for electing the president?
Democracy?
In short, we don't have one person = one vote (popular vote system) because we don't have a pure Democracy. We have a Democractic Republic. :-) When our country was established, people were more vested in states as separate entities. They said "The United States are..." not "the United States is...." Understanding the country as a collection of independent states, the Constitutional framers wanted those states to have power in who got the top job at the federal level. Hence, the Electoral College came into being.
The whole Electoral College system is established in the Constitution. Do you have any idea how hard it is to change the Constitution? With today's politics? Impossible.
The best solution I think we can get today is what Nebraska and Maine have decided to do: distribute electoral votes proportionately rather than the "winner takes all" system that exists in most places. There are people out there working to get more states to adopt the proportional system. Hopefully, they will succeed, and our country will become less of a Republic and more of a Democracy.
Democracy
Wow, thanks for a great explanation Susan. This I particularly like:
They said "The United States are..." not "the United States is...."
I think the election system does seem ridiculous, but the more I learn about the intentions of the people who wrote the constitution, the more it makes sense. Striking a balance of power across the states vs. the federal government is something that it very important to our system, but hard to understand without context.
Instant Classic
I'm an 8th grade history teacher and I think you just nailed the Presidential election process on the head with this video. It may not include all the details about electors and such, but it will do what your other videos have done--simplify a little known or largely misunderstood topic. However, in my opinion, the impact of this video will be greater than your others because of the potential impact on students' civic knowledge. This video should be on every social studies teacher's playlist this fall. Great job!
it in the game
theres more to that districts, just redraw a new one for you favourite candidate :)
http://www.redistrictinggame.com/
Thank you
I've lived in the U.S. for 10 years now, but I never quite understood how the election process works. I still have some questions after seeing your video, but most of them were addressed in the comments. If I ever take the U.S. citizenship test, I'm sure this will help a lot!
Thank you for this clear explanation!
bulk buy this video at the Store, corporations, as part of your
Speaking of licensing as Lee at Commoncraft has been:
a company (companies?) should buy thousands of copies of this
and distribute it to schools - and tout their good deed, of course
Here's to quantity buying from L & S's Store - for the greater good - and for L. & S's profitable future
Kare, moving from me to we
Just win these top 11 states and you're in...
55 California
34 Texas
31 New York
27 Florida
21 Illinois
21 Pennsylvania
20 Ohio
17 Michigan
15 Georgia
15 New Jersey
15 North Carolina
-----------------------------
271
How interesting that only three are really red states... yet a northerner hasn't won since 1960.
great explanation - useful for librarians!
This is a great explanation of the process! A great tool for librarians to share with patrons who may be confused about the process! Keep up the great work!
Jaime/Talking Books Librarian at http://talkingbookslibrarian.blogspot.com/
Sigh
Great job as always, guys. However, watching this video made me want to bang my head against the wall. I'm with rossisen... does the process have to be so convoluted?
Here's my submission for "Electing a US President in Plain English... in an Alternate Universe":
"On election day, you cast your ballot. It's counted, along with all the other ballots from all the other US citizens. The candidate who gets the most votes becomes President. Yay!" The end. 30 seconds max, and you're out.
:-)
Re: Sigh - The candidate who gets the most votes becomes Preside
It may be easier, but it isn't foolproof - that's how Nicholas Sarkozy was elected president of France!
LOL
This is big! While I was watching a great idea crossed my mind for you Lee, however, it seems that you read my mind at the end of your video. I was thinking that this would be great for teachers! I swear, I have learned more then I did watching your videos then I did back in highschool. This would be a great tool for teachers that have trouble gaining their students attention. Once again, Great Job Lee!
Christian
32 Lcd Hdtv
Required Viewing for All Voters & Potential Voters!
You've done a great job [again!] of explaining the extremely complex... and making it thoroughly retainable! To be honest, despite having voted in several decades worth of elections, I never really GOT this system before. Now it's crystal clear!! I especially appreciate the way you've kept any kind of political prejudices out of the video -- It's not even there "between the lines."
Suggestion: If viewers of this great video become more inspired to participate in elections, I strongly recommend they visit a site I reviewed a while back on my blog, Project Vote Smart: The Voter’s Self-Defense System. The site provides the spin-free facts: biographies, voting records, positions on issues, ratings by interest groups, how their campaigns are financed, and more. And everything is checked 5 times to make sure all the facts are verified. So you can do your own “self-study” training on your candidates and public officials records. It's like having detailed, comparative Consumer Reports info for elected officials (state, local, national). Here are related links:
Project Vote Smart Main URL -- http://www.votesmart.org/index.htm
Project Vote Smart Video Overview -- http://www.votesmart.org/video.php
My Review (summary & highlights) of Project Vote Smart -- http://www.bestfreetraining.net/?p=189
Thanks again for this great video that WILL make a difference in this next election!!
Mike G.
Kentucky's Electors
When you give Kansas its additional elector, take it from Kentucky. We only have 8, not 9. We lost one after the 2000 census.
All fixed
We have corrected this. Thanks Angela.
Nicely done
Lee, as an import from the U.K. who naturalized a few years ago, I never fully understood this process, despite taking the "history and civics" test as part of the naturalization process. It would be great to see this video on the INS web site. Still, at least I know the important stuff, like who wrote the national anthem...
-Nigel
Future predictions of the election
nice video.
You have the amazing talent of simplifying complicated things which is quite complicated.
Anyway, now that you understand how the elections thing works, why not read future predictions for the elections on http://www.soitbemaybe.com
Great Presentation!
I love your work. It is simple and to the point and speaks volumes about how great presentations should be. Have you ever done or considered doing a video about presentation skills? I am a teacher and find that the "tools" available to create presentations seem to hinder the presentation because we tend to try to squeeze too much information into them or we get carried away with visuals and so forth. I'd love to have you come up with a video that would show students how to keep presentations simple. It would help to reinforce what we try to teach.
Also, I would like to ask for your permission to use your videos freely in the classroom.
Use this video for election algebra problems
Trackback: http://tcmtechnologyblog.blogspot.com/2008/08/election-algebra.html
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