1. Agenda- 10/6 Grab a chromebook!
Unit 3 Lecture 7- The Electoral College (RS)
“Win the White House”
HW: Unit 3 Test and notebooks next Thursday/Friday

2. Unit 3 Lecture 7 The Electoral College
-How do we elect the President of the United States?

3. How the electoral college works
Play video

4. The electoral college today
Electors are chosen by popular vote.
The party that wins a majority of the popular vote in each State gets all the State’s electoral votes (winner-take-all).
Electors cast their vote, which is sent to D.C., and counted on Jan. 6th.
First candidate with 270 electoral votes wins.
Tie goes to Congress.

5. Flaws in the Electoral College
The winner of the popular vote may not win the electoral vote.
Electors are not bound by law to vote for the candidate chosen by their State.
Elections may be thrown into Congress, where voting is by State and party.

6. Electoral Votes
Donald Trump  (Republican) %
Hillary Clinton  (Democratic) %
Popular Vote
Hillary Clinton (Democratic) 65,853, %
Donald Trump (Republican) 62,984, %

7. GORE – 48.4% Popular Vote 266 Electoral College Votes
BUSH – 47.9% Popular Vote Electoral College Votes

8. The rest of the story…
Play video

9. Proposed Reforms The District Plan
-Electors from each Congressional district, rather than the State winner-take-all plan
2. The Proportional Plan
-Each candidate gets the same share of the electoral vote that they earned in the popular vote
3. The National Bonus Plan
- Winner of the popular vote would get a bonus number of electoral votes
Direct Popular Election
What a novel idea…

10. Why are we unlikely to have a direct popular election?
The overwhelming support for a constitutional amendment doesn’t exist (2/3 of Congress, ¾ of states).
The current system is supported by swing states, overrepresented small states, and urban racial minorities.
A popular vote win coupled with an electoral vote loss hasn’t happened to the Republicans in recent history…

11. iCivics
In-Class activity
-Go to
-Click “Play”
-Play “Win the White House”
-Post a picture of your final slide on google classroom
*When you finish icivics, finish incomplete work and organize notebook