00:00What does the Electoral College mean and what does the popular vote mean?
00:08Got it.
00:08So if I could give a really quick explainer.
00:10So every year, every four years, people go to the polls and they vote for a president.
00:14The popular vote is the vote that the people cast.
00:18And so Hillary Clinton has won the popular vote, well over two million votes that she's
00:23won more than Donald Trump in this election.
00:25But the Electoral College is what determines the presidency.
00:28So when you go to the polls and you vote in, I'm from Nebraska and you vote in Nebraska,
00:35that Electoral College number is different than, say, Florida.
00:38States like Florida, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia, those states, Texas, those states have key
00:46numbers of Electoral College votes that matter in the tally.
00:49You need 270 Electoral College votes to win the presidency.
00:53So while Hillary Clinton won more votes, i.e. more people that went to the polls cast their
00:58vote for Hillary Clinton, Donald Trump essentially won in key places where they had more Electoral
01:04College votes.
01:05So that is, that is how somebody can win the popular vote and not win the Electoral College.
01:10Now I will say the Electoral College was made up, the founding of this country, and you'll
01:15note that the states, southern states, have substantially less Electoral College votes than other states.
01:22And that goes to African Americans only being counted as three-fifths of a person, and the
01:27electors and the founding fathers way back when not wanting states with majority of Black
01:31populations to essentially count for more than somewhere like in Ohio or Pennsylvania.
01:36So technically this Electoral College, how many votes go per state should be re-evaluated.
01:42Has it ever been re-evaluated?
01:43It should definitely be re-evaluated.
01:46It has not been re-evaluated in recent history.
01:49In order to revisit the Electoral College, you have to have some congressional things that happen
01:53and go on in Congress.
01:55And with the Republican majority in the House and the Senate right now, I don't necessarily
01:59think that'll happen.
01:59But it is really important that if people don't like the Electoral College, if they don't like
02:03what they're seeing, if they speak out about it, if they write their reps, that they
02:06continue to talk about it on Twitter, that they host convenings about it in our circles,
02:11that we put it in our group chats when we're having these conversations, because it can
02:15change, but we have to keep the pressure on.
02:16So nothing's going to happen with the Electoral College if we stop talking about it a month
02:20from now.
02:20It does need real reform.
02:22The system is not set up for the people, if you will.
02:25And I think it's incumbent upon the people to do something about that.
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