18 Plus A podcast episode
How America Picks a President: Inside the Electoral College
How America Picks a President: Inside the Electoral College is a 20-minute conversation, by Ronnie Patterson, hosted by Andrew Gray and Claire Whitmore. It walks through how the United States chooses a president: 538 electors, a majority of 270, how states award those votes, and what happens between Election Day and Inauguration Day. The hosts lay out why the system was built this way, the main arguments people make for and against it, and the ideas discussed for changing it or keeping it. The episode does not tell you what to think. It aims to help you explain the process yourself.
Sources for the underlying facts include the National Archives, the Congressional Research Service, the U.S. Supreme Court, the U.S. Census Bureau, and the Federal Election Commission.
Narrated with AI assistance.