#181 - Has The Electoral College Outlived Its Usefulness?

Open to Debate

Education, News, Society & Culture

4.6 • 2.2K Ratings

🗓️ 29 May 2020

⏱️ 52 minutes

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Summary

DEBATE: Has The Electoral College Outlived Its Usefulness? Five American presidents — two in the last 20 years — have assumed office without winning the popular vote. As the nation gears up for another contentious presidential election, some are calling for an end to the Electoral College. They argue that the college subverts the will of the American people by unfairly prioritizing rural and swing states over the nation’s majority. But others say the Electoral College, which the Founders established in the Constitution, is necessary to ensure voters in less populous states have a voice in picking our president. Has the Electoral College outlived its usefulness? This debate is presented in partnership with the Northwestern Pritzker School of Law as part of the Newt and Jo Minow Debate Series. Motion: The Electoral College Has Outlived Its Usefulness For the Motion: Jamelle Bouie - Columnist, New York Times Kate Shaw - Law Professor & Supreme Court Contributor, ABC News Against the Motion: Tara Ross - Author, "Why We Need the Electoral College" Bradley A. Smith - Law Professor & Former Chairman, Federal Election Commission A note from our sponsor: Get an extra 3 months Free on a one year package. Expressvpn.com/debate Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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0:30.6	Hey everybody, I'm John Don Van, host and moderator of Intelligent Square, US debates.
0:40.3	For this episode, I got online with four debaters who argued it out over this resolution.
0:46.6	The Electoral College has outlived its usefulness.
0:51.0	This was a debate that we had originally planned to host with our partners at Northwestern
0:55.4	Law School in Chicago.
0:56.4	We were going to do it at the law school.
0:58.6	Obviously that did not happen.
1:00.7	What did happen was that we had instead a great debate digitally on what has turned out
1:06.6	to be an incredibly timely topic.
1:08.8	So let's get to it.
1:09.8	The Electoral College is this unique construct of indirect democracy that, well, it's not
1:15.7	a college as the term is commonly used, but a jury is electoral in that its members,
1:21.2	who are currently maxed out at 538, have been the actual electors of every president we've
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