Profs and Pints Online presents: “Crash Course on the Electoral College,” with Denver Brunsman, associate professor of history at George Washington University.

As we Zoom into this fall’s presidential election, the candidates’ campaigns are focused heavily on the nation’s Electoral College, which decided the winner in 2016 and conceivably could so again this year. Join historian Denver Brunsman, a Profs and Pints favorite, for a talk on the Electoral College’s history, workings, benefits, and drawbacks. An expert on American political history, he’ll review the performance of the Electoral College from the earliest presidential elections to the present day.

Agreed to in the last days of the Constitutional Convention in 1787, the Electoral College persists to this day as a relic of 18th-century political thought and compromise. The winner of the electoral vote (and hence the presidency) has lost the popular vote five times in American history, with the 2000 and 2016 elections being the most recent examples. It might be America’s most unloved political institution. Nevertheless, as its defenders point out, our system has only failed to deliver a clear winner once—at least according to the labyrinthine rules of the Electoral College—back in 1824.

Why did the framers of the Constitution create such a complicated system for electing the President? What other alternatives did they consider? For all its faults, is the Electoral College actually perfectly suited to America’s federal political structure?

Professor Brunsman will consider such questions in detailing the leading ideas for reforming the Electoral College, including a constitutional amendment for a popular vote as well as state-based solutions such as congressional district plans and the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact. In what promises to a fun home voting experience, attendees will have the chance to choose whether to keep the Electoral College or replace it with a different method for electing the President.  Here, at least, each vote will count equally. (Ticket: $12. This talk will remain available in recorded form.)

Profs & Pints Online: Crash Course on the Electoral College