Supreme Court Rules on Faithless Electors in the Electoral College

This is one of the only issues where I strongly disagree with CGP Grey (that and I live in the US so I think it should be spelled Gray). He mentions in one of his videos that the electoral college doesnt ensure that the president is chosen by the states nor does it ensure that the president is chosen by the people, but I would argue that is exactly the point! The electoral college like most things in this republic is a compromise. It ensures that the president is chosen by a combination of the states and the people.

The idea is that voters vote in blocs; Voters who live in a dense urban environment tend to have a lot of the same concerns and thus vote together. The idea of the electoral college is to spread out political power from high population voter blocs; we hear from the high density urban voter bloc a lot because it represents a lot of people, but we dont NOT care about the low density rural voter bloc, so we're gonna give them a little boost in political power because their concerns matter too. This is one of the only issues where I strongly disagree with CGP Grey (that and I live in the US so I think it should be spelled Gray). He mentions in one of his videos that the electoral college doesnt ensure that the president is chosen by the states nor does it ensure that the president is chosen by the people, but I would argue that is exactly the point! The electoral college like most things in this republic is a compromise. It ensures that the president is chosen by a combination of the states and the people.

The "Simple" answer is that the Founders put it in our national foundational document, and the current organs of political power have grown to exploit this feature, making meaningful replacement almost impossible ... almost.

Sean Munson

Anything other than this is not democratic.

Dave Nattriss

Как продвигать патреон?

Evgeniy Skorpion

Agreed, but the biggest problem in the US is our archaic first-past-the-post system, illustrated by our pathetic voter turn-out. If they let me amend the Constitution, all citizens would be allowed to vote, and there'd be an 'instant run-off' (preferential) system for electing the President, proportional representation in the Senate, and an independent body to oversee House district boundaries, free from gerrymandering. And then I'd overturn Citizens United and create a third chamber to that applies scientific review to all legislation, and guarantee access to healthcare and good beer for all.

Mik Scheper

Yeah, I'm registered in California, although I travel full time so that's actually somewhat arbitrary. I've never felt my state has been pandered to. I actually wish that my representative, Pelosi, really did take my area's values to Washington, the way she's often accused of. Residents of unpopulated states are already overrepresented in the Senate; I don't see why they should be advantaged in the Executive as well. I wish the US just had preferential voting (aka 'instant run-off voting', such a gimmicky US marketing term for it!) and proportional representation, like grown-up democracies do, for the reasons Grey outlines in some of his earlier videos. I think the Electoral College has a couple of interesting advantages in that it makes voter fraud much harder, but it's not at all democratic.

Mik Scheper

I still don’t see why we can’t just simplify and have a 1 vote 1 citizen system. Honestly the current system give parties too much deciding power and concentrates candidate attention to an unhealthy degree on a small section of country.

Orion Dye

Yeah I saw the headline and was immediately shocked/scared for my beloved NaPoVo InterCo... But yes I think if anything this Strengthens it, because if the compact ever happens I'm SURE there will be faithless electors who follow their states' population instead of the Napovo rules

David Hurt

Loved the image not found for the mississippi flag Grey

Thomas

Right now the news has every incentive to twist events into any way that gets them more views/interest, this includes outright lying to people. At the same time there are few if any punishments for twisting the truth or even outright lying to people. Thus our system is one where “a lie will circle the world before the truth can even put its pants on”

Orion Dye

I feel like this story is a great example of where the modern, ad-funded, press lets us down. What should be a headline like "SCOTUS Reaffirms 19th Century Status Quo on Electors" is blown up into BREAKING NEWS.

David Perek

Will there be a directors commentary for this video?

Lloydlcoe

I can confirm living in both Montana and Wyoming that no-one on the national scale really cares what’s going on here. That being said, I don’t think we should get more power because we live differently then others.

1-A5000000B

Yes and no -- in several of the states voting the 'wrong' way instantly disqualifies you and you are replaced with an alternate. :: reminds self that he promised self not to do a director's commentary for this video or the video would never have happened… ::

CGP Grey

I think it's worth mentioning that these states' laws only focus on punishing electors when they do cast a "faithless" vote. But it doesn't prevent them from casting such a vote. As far as I can tell, such a vote would still count, even though they elector may be fined later.

Christian B

Thanks Grey. We're here because we appreciate you, and trust in your methods.

Kris Pockell

I live in a swing state in a rural area. We get lots of attention during the campaign season. Ny and CA will always go democrat, no matter what. So why waste money there..

Nathaniel Wright

I am not at all convinced that that is true. Since each vote would countthe same, why wouldn't candidates focus on places where ads are cheapest to get votes that way? And of course, right now, it's not that candidates focus on small states per se. They focus on swing states only; plenty of small states are ignored and indeed *all* of the big states.

Christian B

I am in favor of this kind of "quick update" video, and I am , frankly, stunned that you got it done so quickly. Well done, Grey...

Sean Munson

Except ... it doesn't. 2/3 of the campaign stops are in the swing states - PA, NC, FL, MI, WI, OH and VA. None of them are in HI, AK, RI, DE, DC WY or MT - the smaller states. ... and NY and CA get ZERO appearances and ZERO ad dollars (despite , I am sure hosting most of the fundraising events) Your logic is broken, and you clearly need to watch an instructional video by CGP grey https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7wC42HgLA4k

Sean Munson

This short video felt like a slightly longer short video

Jesse Barrett Lee

I am from a smaller state and I actually like the electoral college. It helps give power to states that would be otherwise ignored. Candidates would run to please LA and NYC, which have vastly different problems to the more rural areas. Its once every 4 years that the electoral college creates a small inequity, but I think that is fine

Nathaniel Wright

Much obliged. Looking forward to more hyper-productive quarantine content in the future.

Patrick Chase

Thanks for making the best content you can, Grey!

Mia Rolfe