Harvard Law School published this video item, entitled “HLS Library Book Talk | Fault Lines in the Constitution: The Graphic Novel” – below is their description.
Children’s book author Cynthia Levinson and her husband Sandy Levinson, a constitutional scholar and a Visiting Professor of Law at Harvard Law School, have recently published “Fault Lines in the Constitution: The Graphic Novel,” based on their 2017 constitutional law primer for young readers. That first book, “Fault Lines in the Constitution: The Framers, Their Fights, and the Flaws that Affect Us Today,” deals with weighty issues such as the Electoral College, gerrymandering, voting rights, and political imbalance in the Senate.
Read more about the book https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250211613
Read a Q&A with the authors in the Harvard Gazette https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2020/11/law-prof-and-writer-explain-constitution-in-graphic-novel/
Harvard Law School YouTube Channel
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In This Story: Electoral College
The United States Electoral College is the group of presidential electors required by the Constitution to form every four years for the sole purpose of electing the president and vice president. Each state appoints electors equal in number to its congressional delegation. Federal office holders cannot be electors.
Of the current 538 electors, an absolute majority of 270 or more electoral votes is required to elect the president and vice president. If no candidate achieves an absolute majority there, a contingent election is held by the United States House of Representatives to elect the president, and by the United States Senate to elect the vice president.
The appropriateness of the Electoral College system is a matter of ongoing debate. Supporters argue that it is a fundamental component of American federalism by preserving the Constitutional role of the states in presidential elections. Candidates must appeal to a broad and diverse set of states rather than focusing only on the few U.S. cities with the highest population densities.
Critics argue that the Electoral College system is less democratic than a direct popular vote and that the College violates the democratic principle of “one person, one vote.” Thus, a president may be elected who did not win the national popular vote, as occurred in 1824, 1876, 1888, 2000, and 2016.
