How the Electoral College Risks the Determination of a Winner in the Presidential Election

CGP Grey made an update to his 2011 video “The Trouble with the Electoral College” with information regarding the 2016 Presidential Election. Upon further reflection of the original video, Grey saw fit to correct some of his thinking around the data he used, but re-confirmed the highly risky endeavor that is the Electoral College.

Even if you win the election in November, your victory can be taken away from you in December. The Electoral College votes your state gets aren’t really votes, but are individual members of the political parties who perform the real vote for President in December. No citizen voted for these electors to cast a vote on their behalf and many of the electors are free to vote for whoever they want. Their election in December is the real election of the electoral college. The Electoral College was designed to be able to overwrite the will of the people or its own election process any time enough of a small number of unknown unelected political party insiders don’t like the result.

The updated video with the 2016 results.