the electoral college. another state has 10 house members would have 12 electoral votes. it is almost roughly proportional to the size of the state by population, but with smaller states waited a bit heavier because they get the two-seat used with the two vote boost no matter how small they are, and then the consequently larger states ratchet it down because it's not proportional. the district of columbia gets three votes, no matter what, under the constitutional amendment. i don't remember now. i think maybe 1970's the district of columbia did not get to vote in presidential elections or have any votes in the electoral college. that was an amendment tacked on that washington, d.c. would get three. it became awkward because washington, d.c. may be large enough to have the regular apportionment scheme to have four votes, but they would enter three. beenngton, d.c. has always andr our nonrepresentative the united states. to win you have to get a majority of the votes, which is 270. 538 is the total number of

college elector. it can be any able-bodied adult. typically, they are party insiders, donors or other people with long service records to the state party. it's typically a reward for having worked hard for that state's party, now you get to have a semi-ceremonial role where, after election day your -- if your party's candidate wins in that state you to cast the electoral votes. we also refer to these people as a slate of electors. we will talk about most electors in most states who are elected in full or as none. when you show up to vote on election day or vote by mail to whatever version of low by mail you are doing this year, you're not actually voting for the candidate for president or vice president. you are voting for one or the other slate of electors. that is the actual outcome that comes from this election. if you vote for joe biden, you are voting for the six democratic electors, if you vote for donald trump you are voting for the six republican electors who were nominated in the state. elect

edwards electoral college book. i'm sure he's made a good amount of money on it, by now, it's in its third edition, after all. in it he explains how the electoral college works and he lays out key problems and lays out the typical arguments in electoral college, but today what we will focus how the system works and what the electoral college tended to look like. next time we turn towards arguments about pros and cons of the electoral college and sort of consequences for the electoral college for how candidates campaign and how the presidential elections tend to shake out. today all i want to accomplish is how to fully understand the system where it came from and how it works because it tends to be more invoofrled than people think. okay. why do we have the electoral college in the first place? well, a lot of that stems from there just being a desire among many of the delegates at the constitutional convention to compromise and come to some sort of resolution regarding setting out what the terms would be for their ne

foremost among them is the electoral college. back when they set up the electoral college, the gap populous andeast most populous state, you had a 5-1 ratio. today it is well over 60-1. the electoral college is biased against the most populous states and biased in favor of the smaller states because no state, no matter what its population, gets less than three electoral college votes because votes are determined by the number of congressional representatives plus the two senators. so the small states have just one member of congress, but they also have two senators. that is three electoral college votes. it distorts our political system. now, why the electoral college? why did the framers set this up? like anything else, there are multiple reasons. the framers loved the common people, but they did not love them all that much. they believed that the populace could be swayed by unscrupulous demagogues. the prevailing wisdom of the time was first of all we should amit the vote to people with stay in society. that meant men and prope

the electoral college. another state that has ten house members would have 12 electoral votes in the electoral college and this way it sort of almost roughly proportional to the size of the state by population, but with smaller states weighted a bit heavier because they get that two-seat boost no matter -- or two-vote boost no matter how small they are and then consequently larger start states ratcheted down a bit because it's not purely proportional. the district of columbia gets three votes, no matter what, under the constitutional amendment. prior to the -- somewhere between -- i don't remember now. i think maybe the 1970s the district of columbia didn't get to vote in presidential elections. they didn't have any votes in the electoral college. that was an amendment tacked on that d.c. would get three, which at some point may become awkward because at some point d.c. may be large enough to have two through a regular apportionment scheme have four votes but it will still be locked in to three. such as the

utah has six electoral votes in the electoral college. another state has ten house members would have 12 in the electoral college. that's why it's most roughly proportional to the size of the state by population but with smaller states waited a bit heavier. they get that two vote boost no matter how small they are. is not purely proportional. the district of columbia gets three votes no matter what under constitutional amendment prior -- i don't remember now. maybe the 1970's. the district of columbia didn't get to vote in presidential elections. they did not have any votes in the electoral college. that was passed on. at some point that might become awkward. at some point d.c. might be four but it to have will still be locked into three. such is the life of washington, d.c. .ou are under or nonrepresented to win you have to get a majority of the votes, 270. notice that 538 is the total number of votes. you could have a tide. it is possible to have the electoral college come out to 269-269. that is a nightmare for everybody. you need to 7

college elector. typically they're donors with long service records to the state party and it's typically a reward for having worked hard for that states party. you get to have this semi ceremonial role where after election day if you're parties carry winds you get to coast electoral votes. we often referred to these people as a slate of electors. we'll talk about in a minute most selectors in most states, they're likely -- an election day, these people have been nominated. when you turn up to vote on election day or vote by mail or whatever version of voting you're doing this year you're not actually voting for the candidate for president or vice president. even though that's whose name is on the ballot. we are actually voting for is for one or the other slate of electors. that is the actual outcome that comes from this election if you vote for joe biden, you're actually voting for the six democratic electors if you're gonna for donald trump whatever the six republican electors have been nominated in

you know, the electoral college was made for man, not man for the electoral college. so if you're going to have a system that tries to protect state interests, you wonder does it actually succeed in that effort? judge rao: you think that is the principle behind that? protecting state interests? prof. sachs: i think it is at least part of that effort. i think that's the reason why electors were designed to be states and not by -- they didn't have many other mechanisms available in 1787 but they could have come up with one, and one reason that they didn't was because they wanted the states to be able to speak in some sense as states. it is the state legislatures that decide on the method of appointment of the electors. those were the units of government they had. and again, if you were assembling the eu today, you would probably want a substantial amount of power to rest with the member states in shaping what the central government would look like. that means for me that it is not obvious that the principle of equal representation, which i do do recognize and which i do

if a state's electoral college votes are rejected, then those electoral college votes are excluded from candidate totals. my second speech in this series covers what happens if, because of rejected electoral college votes, neither candidate has the majority of electoral college votes needed to be elected president of the united states. mr. speaker, i yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the chair recognizes the gentleman from south carolina, mr. wilson, for five minutes. thank you, mr. speaker. president donald trump was extraordinarily successful in south carolina, overcoming the bias fake news and to have a tremendous victory. the voters appreciated record job growth for african-americans, hispanics, and asian americans along with record job growth to women and youth, along with their restored military with peace through strength, protecting our allies like israel, as he stood for law enforcement to protect american families. there is true love and affection for donald trump in south carolina. democrats wasted the largest onslaught ever of cash with over $200 mi

m -- electoral college map. stream live or on-demand any time on election night at c-span.org/election. debateer: law professors whether to keep or eliminate the electoral college. held by the federalist society, this runs an hour and a half. >> thank you. thanks so much, anthony, and thank you to the federalist society for hosting this debate at its annual faculty conference. i'm delighted to be here with two distinguished scholars to moderate this debate on the question should the electoral college be -- as you are aware, the constitution establishes an electoral college for choosing the president meeting in their respective states, the electors vote by ballot for the president and vice president. alexander hamilton wrote in federalist 68 that the electoral college will provide a practicable obstacle 2 -- intrigue and corruption, he said that it would impose capable discernment for deliberation over the selection of the president. hamilton thought the system best designed to vent, and -- disorder. as we head i

so, again, i know people want to keep talking about the electoral college, but the electoral college is not the problem. the founding fathers gave states the right to decide how to award these votes. if they want to change it from winner take all to national popular vote, count all the votes in all 50 states, and that is your winner, they can do that under national popular vote. the current system does not permit that. host: does congress have any type of say on whether states go to national popular vote? the u.s.s, constitution, again, provides "shallate compacts receive the consent of congress." that is not required before we get to the 270. the interstate compact can go into effect. once we reach 270, you will see two things happen. congress will approve the compact. secondly, the u.s. supreme court litigation will occur. we started this progress -- project in 2005, we fully anticipated this would be challenged and go before the supreme court. litigatore court resides in your city, washington, and was part of the drafting process of the interstate compact, so we are bullish on the

in my view, this is the problem, of the electoral college. not the one out of every nine presidents problem that has produced presidents who are not actually chosen by the majority of voters. not the one out of nine problem. the every election problem. because in every election, the dynamics of this system drive the candidates to focus on an unrepresentative slice of america in order to get them elected as the president of america. ok. so, how would you fix this? well if these are the elements that need to be fixed, the easiest fix is something called the national vote compact. it is where when 270 electoral votes have agreed to this compact. they agree to pledge their electors to vote for the winner of the national popular vote. that compact would solve the winner take all problem. because it would essentially be one-person, one-vote. and everybody would have an incentive to campaign wherever they could get a vote. it is not any more important in swing states versus any other place. i think it likely solves the electoral freedom problem beca

today were in the coming days that this talk about doing away with the with the electoral college electoral college will probably dissipate i think that the big problem this time was because of the pandemic you have many more mail in ballots than we normally do that's one problem the other problem is that the president of the united states is aggressively so i think a long time. any of these military fascinating background but it you know you giving the impression that all is growing and rosy in the u.s. a couple of days after an election where we're still bringing about hands and saying where the heck is this going you know what i think it is normal in the american system and i think it's not normal to europeanize as as you said it's not but the fact is that the responsibility for elections in united states lies with the 50 individual states and they are allowed to structure those elections in the way that they want there are a surprise said mainly volunteers who are working here to count the votes it is actually i think it's very positive for democracy because it is a grassroots effort an

on december 14, the electoral college will meet in each state and the electors will cast their ballots required by state law to be the popular vote winner in each state. those electoral ballots will be transmitted to washington. the new congress will be sworn in january 3, and on january 6, congress will count the electoral votes. that is how the process unfolds and how you get to inauguration day january 20. host: what is december the eighth, the safe harbor deadline. -- deadline? define that. guest: it comes from something called the electoral count act. that's a deadline that's all it does is say if a state has certified its results and appointed its electors by the deadline, congress is required, by federal law, to accept the slate of electors dictated by that certification, and it cannot sort of -- that is the play that gets counted for the state. host: i don't have the exact number of legal challenges in front of me from the trump campaign, but how likely are any of those to slow the certification dates or push back the certification dates in those states affected, michigan, penc

you get an argument against the electoral college.

today were in the coming days that this talk about doing away with the with the electoral college electoral college will probably dissipate i think that the big problem this time was because of the pandemic you have many more mail in ballots than we normally do that's one problem the other problem is that the president of the united states is aggressively so actually guilty of these militants so fascinating diagram but you know you're giving the impression of all is going to rosy in the u.s. a couple of days after an election where we're still reading about hands and saying where the heck is this going you know what i think it is normal in the american system and i think it's not normal to europeanize as as you've said it's not but the fact is is that the responsibility for elections in the united states lies with the 50 individual states and they are allowed to structure those elections in the way that they want there are a surprise said mainly volunteers who are working here to count the votes it is actually i think it's very positive for democracy because it is a grassroots effort and wh

so, again, i know people want to keep talking about the electoral college, but the electoral college is not the problem. the founding fathers gave states the right to decide how to award these votes. if they want to change it from winner take all to national popular vote, count all the votes in all 50 states, and that is your winner, they can do that under national popular vote. the current system does not permit that. host: does congress have any type of say on whether states go to national popular vote? the u.s.s, constitution, again, provides "shallate compacts receive the consent of congress." that is not required before we get to the 270. the interstate compact can go into effect. once we reach 270, you will see two things happen. congress will approve the compact. secondly, the u.s. supreme court litigation will occur. we started this progress -- project in 2005, we fully anticipated this would be challenged and go before the supreme court. litigatore court resides in your city, washington, and was part of the drafting process of the interstate compact, so we are bullish on the

we assume that's how the electoral college works. at the founding, a lot of states, the lawmakers chose them as electors. they didn't involve the people at all. most states converted to the popular election method that we all know today. yes, california, if it shows tomorrow for the next election could award its electors by congressional districts or any other method it chose. >> you mentioned the freedom that the electors have. i know some people will worry about that. you just need a couple of electors to flip, if you will. can that perceivably happen? some people call them rogue electors or perhaps under the direction of a legislature that's controlled. could that happen? >> let's separate those questions out. there's twoishes there. the issue of whether or not the legislate sure can step in and change things around is its own issue. the electors have been with us since the beginning. it ties back to what the framers thought. alexander hamilton wrote that electors would be these thoughtful deliberative men and sat down and figured

college votes the entire nationwide electoral college is made up of 500 and $38.00 members candidates need just over half of those votes to win so the minimum number is $270.00 that's the magic number needed to win during an election when people vote for their preferred candidate they're actually voting for these electors who in turn give their votes to that candidate and a few narrow victories in the swing states can make all the difference because most states have a winner take all system if you get the most votes at the ballot box you get all the electoral college votes for that state maine and nebraska are the exception to this these states actually split their electoral college votes so in america it is still possible to lose the popular vote and still win the election it's happened 5 times twice in just the last 5 elections including of course 2016 when hillary clinton got nearly $2900000.00 more votes than donald trump but trump flipped some crucial states with high electoral vote counts and got past that critical 270 it's going to manage to do so today what we're now joined by

foremost among them is the electoral college. back when they set up the electoral college, the gap populous andeast most populous state, you had a 5-1 ratio. today it is well over 60-1. the electoral college is biased against the most populous states and biased in favor of the smaller states because no state, no matter what its population, gets less than three electoral college votes because votes are determined by the number of congressional representatives plus the two senators. so the small states have just one member of congress, but they also have two senators. that is three electoral college votes. it distorts our political system. now, why the electoral college? why did the framers set this up? like anything else, there are multiple reasons. the framers loved the common people, but they did not love them all that much. they believed that the populace could be swayed by unscrupulous demagogues. the prevailing wisdom of the time was first of all we should amit the vote to people with stay in society. that meant men and prope

votes electoral college votes and look at the national numbers we're going to win this race with a clear majority of the nation behind us we've gotten over 74000000 votes and repeat that 74000000 votes that's more than any presidential ticket has ever gotten in the history of united states of america and our vote total is still growing we're beating donald trump over $4000000.00 votes and that's a margin is still growing as well. president trump has vowed to challenge the results of the election blaming biden's games on what he calls illegal ballots trump's supporters have turned up at counting centers to demonstrate earlier i spoke to our correspondent carolina chinmoy in washington about that and asked her if there's anything in particular we should be concerned about at the moment the narrative of donald trump we should become certain about that because he is still dividing this country and we should not forget he has really a large support behind him and there are a lot of people who blindly believe in him and follow him and these are the ones who are going how it's who are going to

today were in the coming days that this talk about doing away with the with the electoral college electoral college will probably dissipate i think that the big problem this time was because of the pandemic you have many more mail in ballots than we normally do that's one problem the other problem is that the president of the united states is aggressively so actually guilty of these militants so fascinating diagram but you know you're giving the impression that all is growing and rosy in the u.s. a couple of days after an election where we're still ring of our hands and saying where the heck is this going you know what i think it is normal in the american system and i think it's not normal to europeanize as as you've said it's not but the fact is that the responsibility for elections in united states lies with the 50 individual states and they are allowed to structure those elections in the way that they want there are a surprise said mainly volunteers who are working here to count the votes it is actually i think it's very positive for democracy because it is a grassroots effort and when w

college we mention the fact that you can win the popular vote and you could lose the electoral college you could lose the election that happened with clinton that also happened with gore back in 2000 as well there have been calls to reform that system what are the main problems well so the idea behind the electoral college originally was that it would compel a presidential candidate to speak to the whole country so you would have to go to low urban low population states and you couldn't just campaign in new york in california or texas 2 to win a popular vote and you have to move you have to battle for those what's what's in your country what is in each state what has happened however in recent years i mean you know richard pointed this out which if you think about the last 20 years. a republican president has held office for 12 of those 20 years and they've only won the popular vote one time which was george w. bush in 2004 and so this is raising serious questions about the electoral college and what it means for democracy of course it has an important purpose which you know which i ou

really close the win in michigan leaves him chasing just 6 more electoral college votes which leads us out west to nevada with 6 votes on offer joe biden here maintains his lead in nevada and those other states until the end of counting which would give him enough electoral college votes to become the next president of the united states and our figures also indicate he's won the state of wisconsin and the 10 electoral votes that go with it. and then let's again go back out west to arizona 11 electoral college votes it's a tense and tight race joe biden is currently leading with 84 percent of the votes counted with 51 percent of the vote out would be a big win for joe biden the democrats historically a republican state but it's a long time and a lot of counting still ongoing the presidential race is still very much open and just a short while ago joe biden expressed confidence about the state of the race to see address supporters from his home state of delaware my fellow americans yesterday once again proved that democracy is the heartbeat of this nation yes it has been has been the hea

his rival joe biden says he still believes he'll win and is currently $32.00 electoral college votes shy of al broad victory. votes are still being tallied but trump is threatening to go to the supreme court to stop the counting. and in other news the ethiopia's prime minister or his troops into the 2 prayed region following a deadly attack on a military base. and joining us go with the sports argentina football hero diego maradona has had successful surgery to remove a blood clot from his brain. welcomed news oh it is $1500.00 g.m.t. 10 am in the east of the united states and as the new day begins the country is waiting on a handful of results which will decide who will be the next president with 43 states counted results are neck and neck that leaves. 7 states to decide the direction of the country and most of them could go either way while other states polls for the night counting continued in wisconsin we're expecting to hear the results there in the coming hours and counting has restarted in other areas we will be getting you those updates as soon as they come in this hour we wi

to win the popular vote 'd you lose the electoral college is a time to do away with it. yes. so far beyond time to do away with it democratic candidate has won the majority of the popular vote in 7 of the last 8 elections and yet we have not had a democratic president in office for 7 of the last 8 presidential terms in america we like to think about one person one vote that's it's sort of this foundational myth of how our democracy works it's not actually how democracy works and i do think democrats really underestimate kind of how easy frankly the sales pitch for getting rid of the electoral college is because of how we do understand democracy in the u.s. and you know republicans have the kind of track record record democrats have with the electoral college with the popular vote the electoral college would have been gone you know a decade ago so it's beyond time it should be on the top of the democratic agenda now obviously if the senate is republican and it's going to be hard for job to get much of anything done but this is one issue that is like a 5 alarm fire for dem

college which is a process but that's when the electoral college process and show it you know you've got weeks for the states to count them bowing to do a recount if it's needed to make sure that there aren't any fraudulent ballots in there to count for visual ballots so the process is for that to take a couple of weeks then by december 14th you will have the electoral college meet now if we're in the deadlock then or nobody has 270 electoral votes then we could get into a constitutional crisis and the election to go to the house we haven't had that happen the united states since 876 but that is possible yet another water to go to the bridge before to save time being thanks very much steve i can tell just from singapore. well donald trump and joe biden now the 2 oldest presidential nominees in american history and that means their running mates have become more important than ever mike pence in common the harris couldn't be more different from the politics to the personalities. senator harrison vice president pence thank you for being here when vice president mike pence and senator k

college for example i mean the the winning candidate has to get 270 of those 533 electoral college votes so even those fillery clinton discovered to have cost she could win the popular vote if she didn't win the electoral college vote and she didn't become president and when you think the state like florida one of the swing states has 20 knowing a lick of votes that's actually more than 2 of the swing states wisconsin in arizona put together and that is more than 10 percent of the votes that actually a winning candidate needs to get so there is a massive concentration on those so-called swing states just as we see in a british general election you know something like 2 thirds of the seats are already determined. people don't go that come only come in the 100 or so mogul seats would you like to change 1st and it really is they didn't know the vote through choice means that if you live in a particular area your vote really counts for something if you live somewhere else it's meaningless what's happening to voice says pushing for reform seem to be growing so it'll be very interesting to see

is it trying to abolish the electoral college therefore? i don't think so, and it also happened in 2000 when al gore had more popular votes. as laura points out, it's been a tradition but also a tradition for the sake of tradition. it was done by the founding fathers who wrote the constitution. to protect minorities, to protect minorities, to protect minorities in different pockets. beware of the tyranny of the majority. there is a risk that if the majority was leading without regard to minorities, whether that's ethnic minorities orjust minorities based on geography or types of business they're m, or types of business they're in, there is the urban majority versus the rural minorities, for example. so, that was important to protect minorities. so, you don't think it should be abolished? we had somebody on social media say how hard would it be to dump the electoral college. in a word, very hard? constitutional amendments are almost impossible to get through. you have to have approval from state legislation, i don't think they would get that

years ago that includes pennsylvania 20 electoral college votes which would be vital for either candidate to pick up the presidency at the end of well whichever date ends up being we're also looking at michigan in that part of the country with its 16 electoral college votes completing the blue belt there important probably more for joe biden at this stage than it is for donald trump there are 2 other states to think about and that is north carolina with 15 electoral college votes and also the state of georgia. with that 16 votes southern states donald trump would be eyeing those ones up to try to get him over the line with some extra pick ups along the way that might include nevada with 6 electoral college votes which we would expect to go blue but then you can always expect the unexpected county so a final look at the state of the race 238-2213 those states in yellow the ones that are left the swing states the battleground states the states which will ultimately decide this 2020 alexion well that's now speak to our correspondent allen fresh out he's in washington d.c. so by my count it's

this year another 16 electoral college votes up for grabs there and. finally arizona which could end up being incredibly important the type of state which joe biden's team has targeted they needed to hit the urban areas particularly around phoenix and joe biden was doing that at this point so the state of the race once again this is how it looks to 25 to 13. extraordinary numbers on. nights that quite frankly it's extraordinary make extraordinary i'm starting to lose my word that was extraordinary is the word isn't it is extraordinary how tight it's become from all thank you very much let's take this on let's speak to mark jacobson who's a former advisor to u.s. defense secretary ashton carter now assistant dean at the maxwell school of citizenship and public affairs at syracuse university he is in washington mark jacobson we heard from donald trump saying that the democrats are trying to disenfranchise those who voted for him looks like we're heading into a whole world of litigation this is exactly the kind of scenario many were very frightened of has

today were in the coming days that this talk about doing away with the with the electoral college electoral college will probably dissipate i think that the big problem this time was because of the pandemic you have many more mail in ballots than we normally do that's one problem the other problem is that the president of the united states is aggressively so actually coming. any of these males this is so fascinating diagram but you know you're giving the impression that all is bright and rosy in the us a couple of days after an election where we're still ringing in our hands and saying where the heck is this going you know but i think it is normal in the american system and i think it's not normal to europeanize as as you've said it's not but the fact is that the responsibility for elections in united states lies with the 50 individual states and they are allowed to structure those elections in the way that they want there are a surprise said mainly volunteers who are working here to count the votes it is actually i think it's very positive for democracy because it is a grassroots effort an

well just to explain in the electoral college system each state gets a certain number of electors based on its total number of representatives in congress now the national popular vote compact is an agreement which wouldn't completely eliminate the electoral college but instead have its electors back the candidate who won nationwide as opposed to statewide it has now been signed by 15 states and washington d.c. to be enacted the agreement needs to be backed by enough states that would collectively represent $270.00 electoral college votes that is the threshold for winning of course the presidential election at present it has $196.00 votes well i'm delighted to welcome onto the program the dog on the block good jones lead on to democratic strategist and lawyer william professor of sociology at the university of california in santa barbara benedict founder of the libertarian political action committee good to see you all thanks for taking the time today is can we kick off with you is the electoral college system is it a relic of the past and should it be consigned to history. most of the

is it trying to abolish the electoral college therefore? i don't think so, and it also happened in 2000 when al gore had more popular votes. as laura points out, it's been a tradition but also a tradition for the sake of tradition. it was done by the founding fathers who wrote the constitution. to protect minorities, to protect minorities in different pockets. "beware of the tyranny of the majority". there is a risk that if the majority was whether that's ethnic minorities orjust minorities based on geography or types of business they're in, there is the urban majority versus the rural minorities, for example. so, that was important to protect minorities in the system. so, you don't think it should be abolished ? we had somebody on social media say how hard would it be to dump the electoral college. in a word, very hard? constitutional amendments are almost impossible to get through. you have to have approval from state legislation, i don't think they would get that. laura, any appetite to dump it? none at this point, i think you have to de

states to mcready challenger joe biden is closest to the 270 electoral college votes needed to secure the president's he says he to press has called arizona for biden even though the vote count there is not yet finished a win in arizona would put joe biden at 264 electoral college votes other news agencies are reporting that the arizona contests is still open meanwhile the trunk campaign has launched. legal actions claiming voter fraud is trying to stop the vote in 3 states. frustration spilling out onto the streets in new york and trump protesters demanding every vote be counted. in other cities like here in seattle a similar story. in portland a sign that many here have had enough of u.s. politics all together. but in phoenix arizona pro trump supporters make their voices heard outside an election center. this is a country divided. i believe personally as a republican that trump won in a landslide but because of culbut and the ballots that 300000 ballots overnight were found in every city in the swing states were by then i'm just overwhelmed i am so stressed out yesterday it was lik

but all of that ends affectively when the electoral college votes in mid december, basically all the electors in their respective states will confirm the votes, which at the present stands for $306.00 electoral college votes for joe biden. $232.00 for donald trump. now at that point to president trump saying he will accept the electoral college is a decision, though, if he considers it as a fraud. well, that's not strictly true. he has got no option, but to accept that decision that is a constitutional point at which the next president is confirmed by the electoral college. the next step is for congress to certify all of those votes, and then the inauguration on january the 20th one must point out as well. that in more than 30 cases brought by the trump campaign or other republican organizations, have been defeated in the country's courts. so certainly he has no grounds whatsoever that would appear to continue to cry fraud, and to continue to cast any doubt whatsoever on the result of the selection. but he's going to continue to do so. it would appear fear straightly, military has mo

today or in the coming days that this talk about doing away with the with the electoral college electoral college will probably dissipate i think that the big problem this time was because of the pandemic you have many more mail in ballots than we normally do that's one problem the other problem is that the president of the united states is aggressively so actually guilty of these militants so fascinating background but it you know you're giving the impression of all is growing and rosy in the u.s. a couple of days after an election where we're still reading about hands and saying where the heck is this going now but i think it is normal in the american system and i think it's not normal to europeanize as as you said it's not but the fact is that the responsibility for elections in the united states lies with the 50 individual states and they are allowed to structure those elections in the way that they want there are a surprise said mainly volunteers who are working here to count the votes it is actually i think it's very positive for democracy because it is a grassroots effort and when

in january for their on off and then the big ones this hour of course pennsylvania 20 electoral college votes remember donald trump carried this one by a very small margin back in 26 states that let's look at those numbers i'm going to help out the way so we can have a look at those numbers when they come in a state that had been democratic since 1902 and then donald trump went and did this have we got those numbers we haven't got the. it's going to come tell you. there it is sometimes it just has to catch up as well 49 to 48 percent it was really close in vents of a year after barack obama had won fairly comfortably in his 2 runs in 2012 and in 2008 as well and then of course florida now florida is so interesting at the moment because of the sheer number of votes we're getting in already it is too close to call we are now saying not to 50 almost 60 percent of precincts reporting the difference between joe biden and donald trump is $28000.00 in favor of donald trump but that 60 percent represents more but so that 60 percent counted that represents more votes than were cast in the entire

let's look at nevada, six electoral college votes a nd nevada, six electoral college votes and his lead is growing with this one and it was around 20,000 votes and it is now, growing to about 2000 and interesting want to look at. but lots of months and focuses have been on georgian pennsylvania but, let's flag of georgia because it is 16 electoral college votes and this is the one that is so close that it is on a recount, already been called and this lead has grown and the secretary of state is describing the lead as being a number of people that attend a large score. and now, it is 4266. it is crowing, basically. it is certainly growing. pennsylvania, another one put it this way, joe biden wins this one, that's 20 electoral couege this one, that's 20 electoral college votes that put some up to the magical 2070. it is one that the mailing votes, the absentee votes are trailing towards the democrats. so this is one which is close. initially close forjoe biden. we are talking about turning arizona. if he does that and he ta kes arizona. if he does that and he takes nevada, he is there alr

we look into challenges facing the electoral college and potential reforms. our guests are a manager of election law reform at the heritage foundation, and a brooklyn law school assistant effexor of law -- >> you are watching c-span, your unfiltered view of government. treated by america's to cable television company as a public service and brought to you today by your television provider. c-span,g up tonight on supreme court oral argument in california versus texas, a consolidated case regarding the constitutionality of the affordable care act. then joe biden speaks on the health care law and the transition process. after that, the wisconsin governor gives an update on the coronavirus response in his state. then remarks by mike pompeo. court heard oral argument in california versus texas a consolidated case , concerning the

joe biden is closest to the 270 electoral college votes needed. the associated press has called arizona for biden even though there is not yet finished. they win in arizona would put joe biden at two hunt 64 electoral college votes. other agencies are reporting the arizona contest is still open. meanwhile the trump and is trying to stop the vote count in three states. >> stop the boat now. -- the vote now. >> frustration spilling onto the streets. in new york, anti-trump protesters demanding every vote be counted. in other cities like here in seattle, a similar story. a portland -- in portland, assigned that many here have had enough of politics altogether. but in phoenix, arizona approach trump supporters make their voices heard outside of an election center. this is a country divided. >> i believe personally that ump won in a landslide but i believe that because of covid and the balance, 300,000 ballots were found overnight. >> i am just so stressed out. yesterday was anxiety but today i broke down and cried because of the possibility that trump

arizona 11 electoral college vote and georgia with 16 electoral couege georgia with 16 electoral college votes also, they are both due to announce new voting tallies in a few hours time. voting is expected to go on. nevada are saying they will not release any results until tomorrow, a state that hillary clinton won back in 2016 and it has six electoral college votes up has six electoral college votes upforgrabs has six electoral college votes up for grabs full pennsylvania, about 800,000 votes are still to be counted and that is the crucial swing state with 20 electoral college votes that both candidates have been eyeing closely indeed. so everything still to play for. well this down. we're told in pennsylvania and georgia that trump is ahead and biden gaining. in arizona, from his gaining. in arizona, from his gaining on biden but there are legal challenges and demands for recounts. is the mileage there? the trump campaign has lodged lawsuits in michigan, georgia and pennsylvania. basically, in the first two, those lawsuits demand better access for campaign observers and when it comes t

electoral college that's one of the reasons we convened our grassroots election protection coalition i think he's done i think he's such an outrageous and ridiculous character that the powers that be are not going to keep him in there but the important thing to remember is that he was the popular vote by well over 3000000 votes in any sane actual democracy we wouldn't be talking about undecided election you know actions over us by 3000000 votes that's saying so i mean and you know bush in 2000 allowed to all we won by you know if. he actually lost by 500000 what happened in florida should never have happened and what happened in 2016 should never have happened downtown should never been the white house so we've got to get rid of the electoral college we got to get with kerry and bring one good act in the so actually very big deal is that almost all the ballots were on paper you know because that one good thing that came from the go of it is that we had a giant spread of hope by mail which is a really big step forward for democracy and made a big difference and also because older. peo

injoe electoral college, as these votes come. in joe biden electoral college, as these votes come. injoe biden has 89. donald trump has 72. there is a lot more numbers to add to that, before any, either of them can get to 270. that is the winning line. let us go back to christian fraser, at the bbc‘s touch board. yes, that is how that translates on the map, if i were to look at that at any other time i would say that is how it should look. those are solid red and blue state, joe biden 89 to donald trump's 72. i want to rattle through a numberof trump's 72. i want to rattle through a number of states, show you the state of play at the moment. let us start in florida. it is almost ready to be called in florida. 382,000 vote lead donald trump has there, withjust a% of vote lead donald trump has there, with just a% of the vote to count. don't be surprised if they call that in the next hour or so. let us have a look at north carolina. i have been watching through through the course of the night. i will show show you something in a second. north carolina, 86% of the vote counted. you c

college votes shy of outright victory. alone barbara starr you're watching i'll just 0 live from london also coming up votes are still being tallied but the trump campaign is already demanding a recount in one crucial battleground state. and the military escalation in northern ethiopia 'd as tensions between the government and local groups threaten to spill across the border. it's 19 g.m.t. that's 2 pm in the eastern united states and the race for the white house is still too close to call the results from 7 states are still outstanding and most could go either way while counting polls for the night in some states wisconsin has continued that's where we are expecting results to come from next in the last hour the trump campaign announced it will request the recount there we're also expecting to hear from trump's democratic challenger joe biden soon he's urging his supporters to be patient insisting he is on track for victory well this is how the race is stands at the moment a winner will only be confirmed when they reach $