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The Common Craft Newsletter

Explaining the Electoral College

Published 2 months ago • 1 min read

Welcome to the Common Craft newsletter, a free resource for educators, communicators, and explainers. Subscribe or read past issues.

Hello friends,

Every four years, a Common Craft video gets renewed attention. Why? Because it clearly explains how the US elects a president.

Electing a US President in Plain English

Watch the video below on YouTube:

About the Video:

The electoral college process is complicated. When we decided to make the video in 2008 it took research to see the big picture and that was part of the fun. We set out to be non-partisan and give the video a long shelf life. This meant, in part, symbolizing the parties as shapes: circle, square, rectangle.

As always, the goal is not describing the process, but explaining it. This meant addressing common misconceptions and focusing on why the system works as it does. For example: how does the system account for the difference in population across states like California and Kansas?

This video has over 2 million views, 10k likes, and 2,500 comments. Here are a few:

  • "Man, I've been watching videos on this matter all day long, and this is BY FAR the most explicative one. Thank you so much."
  • "Thank you! This is the only explanation that I’ve understood so far"
  • "Oh my gosh thank you! I finally, finally, finally get how this works!!!"
  • "I'm doing a report on this topic and this summed up 4 weeks of searching in a little less than 4 minutes thank you so much!"

As an explainer, this warms my heart.

​Watch the Video​

That's what I have for now. Cheers!

Lee LeFever, Common Craft and Explainer Academy​

The Common Craft Newsletter

A free newsletter for communicators, educators, and explainers

Learn about new Common Craft videos, useful resources, and the skill of explanation from Lee LeFever, author of The Art of Explanation.

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