Hey there! Have you ever heard of a college? It’s usually a place where students go to learn after high school. But today, we’re going to talk about a different kind of college called the Electoral College. It’s not a school, and it doesn’t have teachers or books. Sounds interesting, right?
The Electoral College is a special system used in the United States to decide who becomes the president. This happens every four years. You might think that the person who gets the most votes from people across the country becomes president. Well, it’s a bit more complicated than that!
When the U.S. Constitution was written, the founding fathers created the Electoral College. Each state has a certain number of electoral votes based on its population. For example, California has the most with 55 votes, while smaller states like Alaska and Wyoming have three. There are a total of 538 electoral votes, and a candidate needs 270 to win.
When people in a state vote for president, the candidate who wins that state gets all of its electoral votes. If a candidate wins enough states to reach 270 electoral votes, they become president. After the election, the electors meet to officially vote for the winner of their state. This group is called the Electoral College.
Running for president is a big job! It happens every four years, and anyone who wants to run must be born in the U.S. and at least 35 years old. Most candidates are from the Democratic or Republican parties. Before the main election in November, each party holds primaries to choose their candidate.
Once the candidates are chosen, they travel around the country to convince people to vote for them. On Election Day, people over 18 vote, and the winner of the Electoral College becomes president for four years.
Sometimes, a candidate can win the most votes from people across the country but still lose the Electoral College. This has happened five times in history! The founding fathers created the Electoral College because they wanted electors to choose the president, not just the popular vote. They also wanted smaller states to have a say in the election.
Have you heard of red and blue states? These colors show which states usually vote for Democrats (blue) or Republicans (red). Some states are purple, meaning it’s not clear who will win. Candidates often focus on these purple states to win more votes.
If no candidate gets 270 electoral votes, Congress decides who becomes president. This has only happened twice, in 1801 and 1825.
The Electoral College is a unique system that helps decide who becomes the U.S. president. Even though it can be confusing, it’s important to understand how it works. Now that you know more about it, you’re a more informed citizen!
Thanks for learning with us! Remember, being informed is always a good thing.
State Representation Activity: Gather some colored paper and markers. Each child will choose a state and create a small poster showing the number of electoral votes that state has. Encourage them to decorate their poster with symbols or drawings that represent their chosen state. Once completed, display the posters in the classroom to visualize how different states contribute to the Electoral College.
Mock Election Game: Organize a simple mock election in the classroom. Divide the class into groups representing different states, each with a certain number of electoral votes. Have two candidates (these could be fictional characters) and let each group vote for their preferred candidate. Count the electoral votes to see who wins. This activity will help children understand how the Electoral College works in practice.
Discussion Question: Ask the children to think about why the founding fathers might have created the Electoral College instead of just using the popular vote. Encourage them to discuss how this system helps smaller states have a say in the election. This will help them understand the reasoning behind the Electoral College and its impact on elections.
Sure! Here’s a sanitized version of the transcript:
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**Electoral College for Kids**
Hey kids! By now, you probably know what a college is. That’s right, it’s a school where students go after they’re done with high school to study subjects in a more intense and advanced way. But in this video, we’re going to be talking about a different type of college: the Electoral College.
The Electoral College is actually not for students, has no teachers, and requires no books. Sounds like your kind of college, right? The Electoral College was set up by our founding fathers in the United States Constitution as a way of determining who wins the election for U.S. president, which we hold every four years.
I know what you’re thinking: doesn’t the person who receives the most votes for president across the country win the election? Well, yes, but they have to receive the most votes in the Electoral College, not the popular vote.
Here’s what happened: when the founding fathers wrote the Constitution, they established the Electoral College to determine who becomes president. It works like this: each state has a certain number of electoral votes. When a person running for president wins that state, they receive the state’s electoral votes. Each state has a different number of electors; California has the most with 55, while states like Alaska, Delaware, Montana, North and South Dakota, and Wyoming have the least with three. The number of electors is based on the population of that state. There are a total of 538 electoral votes, so a candidate would need to win 270, or a majority of that total, to become president.
If a person running for president wins enough states to get to 270 electoral votes, they become president. Sometime after the November election, all the electors get together to officially cast their vote for whoever won their state. That group of electors is called the Electoral College.
But let’s step back a second and talk about how you go from being a presidential candidate to winning the Electoral College and becoming president. It’s not that easy. The election for U.S. president occurs every four years, and either someone new can run or the current president can try to win again for a second term. No president is allowed to serve more than two consecutive terms. To run for president, you must have been born in this country and be at least 35 years old. Running for president is a long and laborious process, and campaigns typically last more than a year.
There are usually many people who want to be president, and most often they are either a Democrat or a Republican. There are other political parties too, but it’s very unusual for someone who is not a Democrat or Republican to win. Candidates from different parties have been known to take votes away from the Democrat or Republican candidates, but not enough to become president, at least not in recent years.
Before the main election for president, which takes place in early November every four years, there are primaries in each state to narrow down the candidates from each party to just one. Once the leading candidates are chosen, they typically campaign from state to state to convince people to vote for them. Then, on Election Day, people over 18 cast their votes in each state, and the winner of the Electoral College becomes president for a four-year term.
Because of the Electoral College, it’s actually possible for a candidate to win more individual votes across the whole country but still lose the Electoral College and therefore lose the entire election. In fact, it’s happened five times: Donald Trump, John Quincy Adams, Rutherford B. Hayes, Benjamin Harrison, and George W. Bush have all become president while losing the popular vote.
So why did the founding fathers set up the Electoral College in the first place? They didn’t want ordinary people choosing the president directly because they thought they wouldn’t be well enough informed to select the best candidate. They preferred the idea of using electors from each state to choose on behalf of the citizens. The founders also didn’t want the largest states having more influence in the election because they had the largest population.
For example, a state like California with lots of people could get together with other large states like Texas, Ohio, and Florida and choose the president. The Electoral College gives voters in small population states like Vermont or New Hampshire a say in the election. It means candidates have to campaign in every state to win enough Electoral College votes to be president. If the election were just based on population, candidates would only campaign in larger populous states like California, Ohio, Texas, New York, and Florida.
What do you think about that? Would you rather have the popular vote decide who wins or electors from each state? Which do you think is fairer?
Initially, the Constitution also said that the person who received the second most Electoral College votes would become the vice president. That changed in 1804 when the 12th Amendment was passed, allowing the candidate for president to pick their running mate.
Because of the Electoral College system, when candidates run for president, they often focus their attention on just the states they think they need to win to become president rather than focusing on all the states equally. For example, if a candidate thinks winning Pennsylvania and its 20 electoral votes will help them become president, they’ll spend more time there than in other states. This focus on certain states is one of the criticisms of the Electoral College. If you live in a state that one of the candidates knows he or she will easily win, you might feel left out if that person never comes to your state to earn your vote.
Have you heard of red and blue states? Those labels are the result of the Electoral College. Over the past several presidential elections, states that the Democratic candidate is pretty sure he or she will win have been labeled blue, while states that the Republican candidate is pretty sure he or she will win have been marked red. Some states have even been labeled purple; those are states where it’s not clear who will win. You’ll often find candidates from both parties spend a lot of time in these purple states trying to win votes.
Do you live in a blue, red, or purple state? If you don’t know, take a look at which candidate has won the electoral votes in your state over the last several elections.
So what happens if no candidate gets enough electoral votes needed to become president? Then Congress decides who wins. This has happened twice: in 1801 and 1825.
To sum up, the Electoral College is not a college at all, but a group of electors who choose our president based on how candidates do in their states. The result is that a candidate can get the most votes in the country as a whole but still lose the Electoral College. For better or worse, we’re the only country in the world that uses this system.
Now that you’ve studied up on the Electoral College and know more about how presidents are elected, you’ve become a more informed citizen. No matter how our elections go and whether or not you live in a blue or red state, one thing’s for sure: being informed is a good thing.
Hope you had fun learning with us! Visit us at learnbrite.org for thousands of free resources and turnkey solutions for teachers and homeschoolers.
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This version removes any informal language and maintains a clear and educational tone.
