Has The Electoral College Outlived Its Usefulness?

Open to Debate

Education, Society & Culture, News, Government, Politics

4.5 • 2.1K Ratings

🗓️ 25 October 2024

⏱️ 52 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

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 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	When Kate and Jervais founded Health and Her in 2019, they set out to transform Menopause care.
0:06.4	Through Barclay's Eagle Labs, they gained specialist industry and business expertise,
0:11.0	with support and training for the whole team.
0:13.0	But the story doesn't end here.
0:16.0	Because Health and Her are only just getting started,
0:19.0	selling at major UK retailers,
0:22.0	and making a real difference to thousands of lives.
0:25.0	Grow your business. Bank on Barclays.
0:28.0	Search Barclays Business Banking. This is open to debate. I'm John Don Van.
0:37.0	In this episode, we are re-examining a timely election-related topic.
0:43.8	A recent Pew study found that almost two-thirds of polled voters think we should
0:47.6	abolish the Electoral College.
0:50.3	We first looked at this issue with the debate we recorded in 2020, and it's just as important now, ahead of another contentious presidential election.
0:58.0	A couple of show notes, in this episode, you will hear me reference Intelligence Squared U.S., which was our previous show name.
1:05.1	We're now called Open to Debate, of course.
1:07.5	And you will hear us poll listeners at the start and the end of the debate to see if anybody
1:11.0	changed their minds. We're not doing those polls these
1:13.7	days so for our newer listeners this will be a fun bonus. So the question being debated is
1:18.7	has the Electoral College outlived its usefulness.
1:23.2	So let's get to it.
1:24.0	The Electoral College, it's this unique construct of indirect democracy that, well, it's not
1:30.1	a college as the term is commonly used but it sure is electoral in that its
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