I Don't Know About That - Electoral College

Episode Date: October 13, 2020

In this episode, the team discusses the Electoral College with Dr. Robert Alexander (@onuprof).See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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And I don't know about that with Jim Jefferies Hello Ah, I fucked it up Ah, hello everyone That was a perfect read I'm Jim Jefferies I don't know why I always go British for that I always change my accent to slightly British Hello, everyone. That was a perfect read. I'm Jim Jeffries. I don't know why I always go British for that.

I always change my accent to slightly British. Canada, Australia, is there a difference? There is a difference. I know the difference. It's maple syrup, and that's it. That's it. That's the only difference. That's the only difference. You panicked there.

It was a bit of comedy. Bit of comedy. Bit of comedy. Having a bit of a laugh. All on purpose it was a bit of comedy bit of comedy bit of comedy having a bit of a laugh all on purpose yeah speaking of uh comedy uh the president uh got the covid he's got the covid he's got the covid this will be out this is we found out today but this is like yeah so we found out yesterday yeah that's when this now i don't i don't wish death upon anybody so i hope he gets better i the the problem i have with him getting coveted is i don't see how this is bad for him in any way yeah in any way the only way it's bad for him is if he

dies if he dies it's bad that's bad is it bad though because i feel like that's bad for him i feel like for him that might be like true actually very bad for the person that dies yeah very bad for the person i don't know it'd bad for the person that dies. I don't know. It'd be like the sweet release of death. You can't possibly want to live now after all this. No, no, no. I don't wish death upon people. But the thing is, if... I look at it this way. If he gets it, he has no symptoms, and he's fine, he'll go like this.

Oh, there's nothing wrong with it. You'll get a cough. It's a little bit of a cough. Let's go back to work. Right? He'll do that. And if he gets really sick, he'll get sympathy, and he'll get voted in. The sweet spot is he goes into intensive care and he's fine.

People that are listening to this already know the answer, though. I know. I know. It's like a riddle wrapped up in a mystery, wrapped up in an enigma. And a piece of bacon. It's like those episodes that we recorded before we really figured out the format. And we did one on pandemics, guessing what we thought was going to happen with this. And boy, were we fucking wrong. We never released that one with this and boy were we fucking wrong we never released that one i know we i know we never

released that one because we were already so fucking because forest was so racially charged why are you farting anyway so um yeah i remember we were joking how many people will die we're like 70 000 and turn out to be 200 no we guessed low. The lowest guess was like 6,000. I think the highest thing we guessed was 13,000 deaths from this. Yeah, we were so fucking off base. Yeah, really? I think we never released that.

Yeah. No, we never released. We have three podcasts we never released. One, the first one was just us trying to do some version of this. Doesn't COVID sound like a porn company? Yeah.

Yeah, it does. Like Avid. Yeah, Avid, COVID. There was another one with earthquakes. Do you remember that one? Oh, yeah, the earthquake guy. And we did one with Whitney Cummings. Yeah, it does. Like Avid. Yeah, Avid, COVID. There was another one with Earthquakes. Do you remember that one? Oh, yeah, the Earthquake guy. And we did one with Whitney Cummings.

He shook my world. We did one with Whitney Cummings when we first started. It was about marriage or something like that. But we still didn't have the format down. We'll bring Whitney back.

Whitney's a friend of the show. When I say friend, a friend of mine. I don't know if she listens to the show. If you're listening, Whitney. Hello, Whitney. Hello.

How are you? I don't think she listens. Very highly successful podcaster, Whitney Cummings. There she is. We'll bring her back. There she is. There she is. Throw her up on the screen.

Big fan of Whitney. Very nice lady. Friend of mine. There you go. Now I'm going to list off the podcasters I don't like. We don't have enough time. Is there any thing that

any segment you've got there Jack you've got something on your computer got a new segment I don't even know if you have an Apple computer you just have

you've covered the Apple you've put a sticker over it probably when you worked on my show the Jeffrey Epstein show the Jim Jeffrey show and you we don't talk about

me working on the Jeffrey Epstein show yeah you worked on yeah you worked on that we just did he worked on that I'm telling you we don't talk about me working on the Jeffrey Epstein show yeah you worked on yeah you worked on that we just did he worked on that I'm telling him we don't talk about him

don't put it on the don't put it on the he was the girl wrangler I drove him all the way can you imagine how bad Jack would be at recruiting women for a fucking sex trafficking

no no no there could have been a lot more crimes if Jack wasn't the girl wrangler come on there's an island why won't you come with me yeah yeah

there's no sex involved. Come with me. Yeah, Jack walks up to him like this, hi, and they go, no. No, but you even know how to say it. Yeah, but you're standing awkwardly, no. I'm working on the posture. Remember when you taught Jack how to lean?

Oh, God, it was awkward. We told Jack, when you go up to a girl in a bar, just lean against the bar. Yeah, that was the tip. You're a casual guy. You're airy, you're a free spirit. Just lean against the bar like they don't matter.

And then he went up and punched the girl. I'm like, I don't think I've done it wrong. No, it was like- I freaked out, guys. The tip was you can use the bar to relax and kind of lean on it and do kind of things. And I showed you a couple of different versions on how to lean on the bar. And you lean on the bar like you were made out of wood. Yeah, the guy does not know how to relax.

The bar was too low. It was like at my knee. Your posture was so erect. He leant so badly that the bar pushed back and said, I'm not interested. Bar was uncomfortable. Me too. Me too. Me too by a bar. I'm a dive bar.

This isn't for me. I'm used to men with no teeth, but not you. What's the name of the new segment? So I forget what your pitch for it was. It wasn't a pitch. It was the name of the segment. I call it I Still Know About That. No, that's nothing. nothing well then what did you come up with because i don't remember now i do know about that maybe yeah and then you can have a song now i do know about that

maybe drove the chevy to the levee but i didn't know that so basically what it is is i'm going to quiz you on some questions from previous episodes to see if you still remember anything fuck me I had no idea about this I thought we were

going to do comment world we've only done 23 23 episodes this is from the bees episode with our expert Ted McFall

a beekeeper who has no social media no social media good luck finding him go to a field all I can say about the guy is you can lean up against the bar properly he's very No social media. Good luck finding them. Go to a field. All I can say about the guy is you can lean up against a bar properly. He knows how to lean on a beehive.

First question. How do bees make honey? Oh, for fuck's sake. I know my original answer was by rubbing their feet together. I'd say I remember that too. They collect pollen and then they gang bang the queen, I think was the appropriate answer. That's the wrong answer. That's what I said the first time. This segment

should be called Stuck in My Ways. Do you ever remember all his fake answers? Unflappable opinions. Yeah, it was something to do with gang banging. I guess, do you guys remember? They collect pollen and then they shove it in a honeycomb.

And then they, I don't know. They shove it in a honeycomb. That's a euphemism if ever I've heard it. They take nectar from a plant and then they chew on it for 30 seconds. They vomit it. Vomit it. Then they spit it into another bee's mouth and they chew on it. They spit it into another bee's mouth and then they chew on it for 30 seconds. They vomit it. Vomit it. Then they spit it into another bee. Vomit it. Bee's mouth.

They spit it into another bee's mouth. And then they chew on it. Go make me money, bitch. And then they just keep doing the chew-spit process. Oh, yeah. This was the two girls, one cup version of bees. And then eventually it makes honey. Wow.

I don't want to eat honey anymore. I feel bad about calling my wife honey now. After I know what a violent crime it is. It was worse when you spit in her face. She didn't mind the honey part. Hey, honey. Hey, bee spit. I love you so much.

Good joke, Jack. Grushing it. Sometimes I have to flag them so people know it's him. Well done, Jack. The invisible voice is me. Second question. How does a bee become a queen bee? I didn't remember this one.

Yeah, they put a ring on it. If you like it, then you should have put a ring on it. Queen bee. Queen bee. Queen bee. That's how they do it. No, no, no. What they do is they

date the other bees for a while and then when it doesn't work out and he goes oh i should say to the people that she keys his car and then pours pours all of his uh his clothes into the garden and lights them on fire and people call that empowering and not a hate crime. That's accurate, right? That's right. That's 100%. He's just a little bit off. It's when a baby bee is born.

It's called a larva. You didn't ask us if we knew it. Yeah, you guys didn't jump in like you did, so I assume you didn't. When a baby bee is born. I didn't, but I just thought about that. Is this all about bees? I thought you were going to do several episodes.

We did. No, we'll have this a recurring segment but you had to we had to do it by episodes yeah so a baby's born and then the worker bees feed that bee

royal jelly which is a special food that was the bee cocky part god damn it I remember all these now fucking royal jelly and then it becomes and then the bee

becomes the biggest bee in the I thought royal jelly was when you looked at Meghan Markle and went I wish I could be her that's a good one i like that one it's fun you get new jokes how do i work it into my stand-up

all right how do you remember the difference between a drone and a worker bee yeah i remember a worker bee goes out and collects pollen and a drone bee. Yeah, I remember that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. A worker bee goes out and collects pollen, and a drone bee goes out and flies over people's swimming pools and take photos. Bombs countries. I remember this one, actually. What was it? The worker, yeah.

The workers are all females. Yes. And they collect pollen. And the drones, the males, and they have sex with the queen. That's it. And then they die. Yeah, and they die in Jack's balcony. That's it.

They're dying on Jack's balcony. He goes, that fellow there. I remember he goes, that fellow there has a drone. They're having a lot of sex above the balcony. And it turned out you're not having any sex. I fantasize about having sex above the balcony. I know the answer to the next question you haven't asked. It's because I piss in my pool.

That's true. Did you have another question? Yes, the last question I have is why should you not eat bananas around bees because they like the smell of bananas I remember this

or they hate the smell and it makes them attack yeah it's close I remember this it gives them a fight or flight response basically and then they attack

I think about this one all the time now because when I was in Yosemite we were like hiking and stuff and there was bees and I was like do not have bananas in your backpack because that's was in Yosemite, we were like hiking and stuff and there was bees and I was like, do not have bananas in your backpack

because that's the smell they give off to tell everyone like, hey, attack. I wanna see Forrest like hiking and somebody pulls out a banana and he's like, no, slap me. What the fuck are you doing? There's bees around here. I guess just specifically,

it's when a bee stings, it puts out a pheromone. That's like an alarm odor that lets the hive know they're in danger. Why did you do air quotes for alarm odor? I don't know. There's probably a fancy word for it. I haven't had sex in a long time. What was the air quotes?

Pheromone or whatever. Pheromone. People enjoy time with me. There were air quotes there well that's good now we all relearned about bees again do you think you remember those Jim?

I didn't fucking I don't know what you just talked about man do we want Jim to finally get to that story that he was no we don't know I would have

but Forrest just farted we also don't have time for it though that's the thing what's this fart thing you're doing? just trying to change things up why are you taking your headphones off i thought we just got in the next segment we are but i gotta i gotta let's introduce our guest there you go okay our guest today is uh dr Robert Alexander. Hello, Doctor. Hello, how are you? I'm very good, thank you.

We're going to do a game called judging a book by its cover. Do we have that? Do we have a jingle? Oh, yeah, we have a jingle. We have to get approval, but we'll just use it for right now. No, no, no, they gave it to us. They can't. This is public domain. Oh, yeah, I'm like a fucking lawyer.

I do have it in email that we are allowed to use it. So this is a part of the show, Dr. Alexander, where Jim tries to guess what your field of expertise is just by asking yes or no questions and a listener has made a new jingle intro for it. Yes, no.

Yes, no. Yes, no. Yes, no. Judging a book by its cover All right. That was the sound of a book hitting the ground. At the end, was that just the singer, like, he ran out of breath? Collapsed. He's getting exhausted.

Exhausted by all your bad guesses. Well, I tell you what, there are actual books with covers behind him. One's got the White House on it. One's got something. I can't read it, but it's got a map of America, and it's all red. And it's red. I'm going to say that you're an expert in politics, American politics. Okay.

You're pretty close, but what specifically? You can ask him yes or no question. Okay, are you an expert in politics? Yes. All right! That's not what we're talking about, though. We are talking about politics, but specifically. Yeah, is your expertise in elections?

Yes. All right, are you an expert in elections? But what about elections in particular? Oh, what about elections um a specific part of elections oh oh this is the best he's ever done yeah these books definitely gave it away the way i gave it away it's fine it's okay that's it do you control the line at the front no like all the polling much in elections here i'll give you a hint. Alaska, three. Oh, oh, oh.

California. Yeah, the college thing. The college thing? The college thing. Are you an expert in the college thing, man? I am an expert in the college thing. All right! The electoral college.

First time! The electoral college. Electoral college. He judged. The Electoral College. Electoral College. He judged a book by its cover. Yeah, he did. You literally looked at the books. Yeah. You got it.

He literally looked at the books. One of them is his book. I recognize it from what you sent us. Dr. Robert Alexander is a B.A. in political science from Ohio Northern University and a master's and a Ph.D. from the University of Tennessee in Knoxville. He is a professor of political science at Ohio Northern University in Atta, Ohio, and is the founding director for the Institute for Civics and Public Policy. His Twitter handle is at ONUPROF.

That's ONU prof. And his most recent book, Representation and the Electoral College, is available. It's from the 2018 Oxford University Press and was selected as an outstanding title by choice magazine I'll mention the CNN thing later at the end there too that you're doing now I don't really get you I get the Electoral College but I don't really get it that's why we have mine yeah yeah I know I know that you get because I I'm voting for the first time I'm about to vote for the first time I'll tell you how I'm gonna vote the first time. I'm about to vote for the first time. I'll tell you how I'm going to vote.

Not for Trump. I would vote for a fucking rabbit. But there's other things to vote for, too, besides. I know the propositions, and that's I'm voting for whatever Jack says is the right thing. So I will be voting for whatever a son of a millionaire Coke executive would vote for. So it's going to be fairly republican i'm sure my it's red all the way yeah yeah yeah i'm fucking health care you americans back where i was from we all got a stick and that's how we fixed ourselves you got an upset stomach drink a coke

yeah drink a coke dr alexander can you just brush your teeth with coke can you tell us a little bit about how you came to be an expert in electoral college? Just a little bit about you. Yeah, sure. I'm a first generation college kid. My grandparents had no more than an eighth grade education. And along the way, when I went to graduate school there in Knoxville, I ran across a professor who said nobody knows anything about electors, which I'm sure we'll talk about a little bit more. And so we started a project on trying to figure out who electors are.

And eventually I started doing surveys of electors and found out all kinds of interesting information on them that actually ended up before the Supreme Court of the United States of America this past summer. Ooh. Yeah. That's another episode. What's that? The Supreme Court, yeah. No, the United States of America? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, there's a bunch of states.

Okay, so we are gonna ask Jim what he thinks he knows about the Electoral College. I'm gonna prod him along with some questions and then I'm gonna keep some notes. You're welcome to keep notes too. And at the end of, I'm going to prod him along with some questions. And then I'm going to keep some notes. You're welcome to keep notes too. And at the end of it, you're going to grade him on zero to 10, 10 being the best on how accurate he was with regards to the electoral college.

Kelly's going to grade him on confidence. I'm going to grade him on et cetera. And today, if you score zero through 10, but 11 through 20, her 21 through 30 emails. I think the emails gave him covid i think that's what the emails were saying it's just like a norton antivirus thing and he's just like i've got covid trump was looking at the wrong porn site. That's how he got the virus.

Becky Big Tits gave me COVID. All right, Jim, what is the electoral college? Each state is given a certain amount of vote spots. So the more you have in your population, the more you have vote type of things and so i think like you've got to have like a majority of these things so so like hillary clinton won the the the the the what's the word the fucking popular the popular vote she won the popular vote more people voted for hillary clinton then voted for donald trump but he won the electoral college because he uh did these big rallies in states and it turns out there's loads of white supremacists and that's how you win white supremacy white supremacy um okay that's how i won class

president in uh 1992 it was in australia it was all just white people but we felt very supreme how many electoral votes are there in total? Fuck. Like 140. 140 total? Yeah. Okay. And then how many do you need to win?

How much does a candidate need to win? Oh, 71 then. Okay. Checks out. The majority, obviously. Okay. Logically, that's there. Yeah, I know the gist.

There's numbers involved. How many times has the candidate that won the popular vote lost the electoral college? Throughout history. No, just last week. You're including like John Adams and shit. Yes, yes. Since the United States became a country. I could have said George Washington,

but I wanted to show you that I knew what the second president was. How many times has a candidate who won the popular vote lost the electoral college, and can you name them? See how many you can name. I'm going to say it's happened 12 times. 12 times? Yeah. How many do you think you can name out of'm going to say it's happened 12 times. 12 times? Yeah. How many do you think you can name out of the 12?

Hillary Clinton. Okay. She won it. I know that, what's his name? The fellow who had the, who's the guy who likes the environment? You're almost there. He made the internet.

You're almost there. Gore? I like how it's easy to find the one guy who likes the environment. Who was the Greek fella who wore the army helmet in the tank and they didn't like him anymore? Dukakis? Dukakis. You think he's on that list?

Whacking a Dukakis. Okay. Put that in your Dukakis. Okay. It's smoking. Dukakis. I'm going to say the bloke that was running against Lincoln, Joe Finkel. Joe Finkel.

Joe Finkel has a long career. Joe Finkel always makes an appearance on this podcast. That was a hotly contested election. Just so you know, Dr. Alexander, Joe Finkel is an answer when Jim doesn't know anything. He throws out Joe Finkel. He made about five appearances on the book. He walked on the moon. Yeah, he walked on the moon.

He looked at people from the window. He was driving window he was driving he was driving the plane anyone else you can remember? I've got some other ones I'm going to say that I'm going to say George Bush senior

won the popular vote against Clinton but Clinton won the electoral college I'll throw that out there I've still got another 9 Won the popular vote against Clinton, but Clinton won the electoral college. How about that? Okay. I'll throw that out there. Okay. I've still got another nine. No, you've said five. I've said five.

I'm going to say. Let's go. Rapid fire. I'm going to say that. Not Kennedy. Just tell me the people they ran against. I'm going to say Lyndon Johnson lost the popular vote, but won the whole thing. Okay, Johnson. Yeah.

So whoever he ran against. All right. Yeah. I think we can move on. Okay. Why would I know that? I don't know. That's such a difficult question.

Oh, remembering the loser. Who does that? It's fun to watch you struggle. How are the electoral votes divided? Like, so how... Yeah, like the electoral votes divided like so how and what yeah like how it's it's per population right so california has loads of new york has loads of like the republicans always win more states but the the uh the votes are so big in the blue states that they sort of even up type of thing and then you have like i think like florida florida has

like 13 or something like that and that's why it's all and then you have like i think like florida florida has like 13 or something like that and that's why it's all and then you get like like fucking delaware has three or something you know so shitty estates small not shittier smaller states i mean honestly when do you think about delaware it's a state that like you hardly ever hear anything about i did i did a joke once about how i couldn't have sex with any of the miss uh whatever miss california's or i said i could possibly get Miss Delaware. It was a joke I said once. And that joke was from maybe 11 years ago.

And since then, three Miss Delawares have reached out to me. Wow. To go, what, you think you could get me? And I was like, definitely. You're the one who messages me. Of course I can. You just slipped into my DMs. If I knew, I would have gone,

oh, I could never have sex with Miss California. And then like just, you know, but I picked Delaware. These are horrendous looking women. Anyway, so... There's nobody pretty in Delaware? No, no, no. The name was Stumps. There are several states with the least amount.

Do you know what the least amount of number is in any of those states? The least amount is three. Three? Just name one or two states. Rhode Island. Rhode Island. Is a three. Is a three.

I'm going to say South Dakota. South Dakota. And who has the most? North Dakota is rocking out with 12. Oh, really? Whoa. I'm moving there. Who has the most?

I believe California. And you know how many it is? I believe it's like 26 or something like that. 26, okay. I'm going to sound like such a moron on this. I don't know. I had a political talk show on TV. No, but I will tell you this.

The reason we're doing this specific topic is because we're getting closer to the election. And I don't think a lot of people know this, to be honest with you. I don't know it. I know a little bit about the electoral college, but I don't know a lot of specifics. I get the gist of the whole thing. Yeah, yeah. I think a lot of people. I feel like it's designed for us to not understand how it works so that nobody really fights to get it eliminated.

There's certain states that you have to fight harder for because they've got a lot of votes and they're swing states and it's like ohio and florida it's like the ones that you got to do that for all right um we're getting there we're getting there doctor we'll be there in a second uh so i always like looking at our guests sometimes you can just see their face like i got a lot of work to do he's got the gist he's got the gist i got the gist. He's got the gist. I know the vibe. The vibe, yeah. When did the Electoral College begin? Oh, I'm going to say after the Emancipation Proclamation. So that was 1976. After the Emancipation Proclamation?

1976. 1976. Shit's been so bad. It was when the movie Shaft came out. Well, I think it's in the Constitution before. Okay, so I'll give

a real answer. Before Sleeving. I'm going to say it was 1827. Okay. Do you know what amendment? I don't know what an amendment is.

No, there's an amendment that refers to it. Oh, I don't know that. Got it. Okay. Do you know what amendment? I don't know what an amendment is. No, there's an amendment that refers to it. Oh, I don't know that. Got it. Okay. How do electoral voters get selected and do they get paid? So there's specific people that are the actual, each one of those votes each state has, I'll tell you, is represented by an actual person. How do those people get selected? Okay.

Well, they're not, everyone gets two senators per state yeah but these are electoral voters these aren't the senators or the representatives oh how do they get um it would be a job interview process yeah craiglist yeah yeah it would be you'd come in you'd come in go i look i haven't been up to much um i'd like i'd like a job. Fate of the free world. What's this 10-year gap in the resume? Yeah, you could vote for the president. COVID's been hard. I'd like to be an elector.

So they get picked by the amount of donations they make to people. Picked by donations. Yeah, it's corrupt. And do they get paid? Is there an incentive? Of course they'd be paid. Yeah, they'd be paid something. That's their incentive?

Okay. I'll give'd be paid something. That's their incentive? Okay. I'll give you a quick story. I worked for the Australian government during an election, right, where I had to count votes. I worked during the election, and they paid me. I want to put this out there. I was in charge of counting votes in Australia. 15.

I was 15 years old. Yeah, but it's just one, two, three. It's not that hard. I phone 15 years old. Now, I don't- Yeah, but it's just one, two, three. It's not that hard. I phone things in now. Yeah. How much do you think I just wrote random numbers? There's 170 votes for the Liberals and 100 for the Labor. We've seen his counting process on this podcast before.

Well, he's good at counting. I'm not going to say there's voter fraud, but there was when I was counting. Just voter mistake. Luckily, the prime minister won by a landslide, so I really wasn't the deciding factor. But I wasn't the best electoral person to work on anything. They gave you lunch. What happens if there's a tie? Is it possible for the tie?

Yeah, then the Supreme Court gets to decide. And that happened with Bush and Gore. And the Supreme Court gets to decide. And that happened with Bush and Gore. And the Supreme Court gets to decide with their vote. Okay. And then do you know what a faithless elector is? That's a person, like an atheist, who elects things. That's Jim. Yeah, yeah.

So there's elector votes. They don't believe in God. Yeah, they don't believe in God. Okay. And have they ever affected an election? People who don't believe in God. Yeah, they don't believe in God. Okay, and have they ever affected an election? People who don't believe in God. Yeah, but faithless electors. Sure.

Yeah, sure, okay. Are there any alternate systems that have been proposed, or is there any other way that president can't be elected? Well, the alternate system is, and they're trying to get this in now, is just using the popular vote and getting rid of the electoral college completely. Other options that have been decided is put both candidates in one of those tanks where you throw a ball at the thing.

It's called dunk the junk. And dunk the junk, yeah, that was a very popular option. And everyone gets a throw? Oh, yeah, we all get to have a throw. It's okay, it'd take a long time. Yeah, we have to line up. We're going to be so wet. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But the problem is because

the Republicans never win that way. Because the Democrats have all those Mexican pitchers. We do have most of the applicants. It's not the Mexicans. It's the Dominicans.

Yeah, Dominicans. Dominicans have better pitchers. Cubans. Mexican, there's a few better pitchers. There's a few better pitchers. You know what I'm saying. What I was doing there was racism. Anyway, so.

He got the gist. I got the gist. I think Kelly's we have the better athletes was more racist. Why? I think statistically when you look at sports right now, there are more athletes speaking out against the other side.

So I wasn't talking about race. But we do have a lot of black athletes on our side. And they're pretty fucking good at sports. I think they have the Tom and Gronk show. Tom and Gronk. Tom and Gronk. Voting in presidents. Tom and Gronk. Okay. fucking good but i i think i think they have the tom and grunk show tom and grunk tom and grunk voting in presidents tom and grunk okay um so a couple more questions here uh what are some

like i guess i was i don't know how this question yeah we'll get we'll just skip that so what are controversies associated with we can just talk about that i'm assuming you don't know what the i don't even know how to pronounce this like this b-a-y-h bay seller amendment you don't know what that is by seller by seller you know what the by side um uh that's uh that's a hooker who can do it your husband and your wife wow okay we just different topic um and then just and to keep it i have a husband and a wife in case anyone caught to keep it current here trump saying that Trump saying that the election is rigged, et cetera, and things like that, all the rhetoric he's saying, how does that play into the Electoral College? What are the problems that can be associated with that due to the Electoral College that people think might happen or could happen? I'm not sure about that.

I don't know why he thinks the Electoral College is rigged because it worked in his favor. No, but by saying that, is there something he can affect in the Electoral College is rigged because it worked in his favor. No, but by saying that, is there something he can affect in the Electoral College or is it like flawless basically? Nothing's flawless. Yeah. Okay. Good answer.

All right. We'll get the answer there because I think that's important to talk about. All right. Forrest, you just have to love yourself. All right. Dr. Alexander, thank you for waiting there patiently. How did Jim do zero through 10, 10 being the best on the Electoral College?

He started out real strong, you know, and then he kind of gave up, I'll just be honest. He got worn down. I was doing good in the election, then I said, grab him by the pussy, and then I'm still going to win. Yeah, yeah. good in the election and then I said grab him by the pussy and then I'm still going to win. Yeah. And then you came back and you were a poll worker at one point

so that kind of, but then you said that you were a fraudulent poll worker so that wasn't so great. But generally speaking, on the Electoral College it is a really complicated process. I would give you a seven. Whoa!

And that's a seven from California. What about confidence, Kelly? I'm going a five on confidence. That's a five from Ohio. Yeah. I'm giving you a zero on et cetera because you didn't say America is the greatest country in the world.

Oh, man. You don't say that every morning. I just learned the United States was a different bit. You got a total of 12, so you're her. All right. I'm with her. Okay. And I want to say I was grading on a curve.

Yeah, he's being nice. We noticed. Yes. All right, Dr. Robert Alexander, thanks for being here, Ken. And so Jim said, ask him what the Electoral College was at each state. Get some vote spots and mention popular vote versus electoral. Can you just tell us like what the Electoral College is and like why it came about? Kind of. Sure. Yeah. The Electoral College is indeed a process. It's not a place.

Yeah, the Electoral College is indeed a process. It's not a place. He was right that, you know, states get votes. It is a kind of a combination of the popular vote and this kind of representation on the basis of the Senate. So every state receives the amount of representation it has in the House, which is based upon population. So the more populated states get more electoral votes. upon population, so the more populated states get more electoral votes, but every state gets two electoral college votes just on the basis of its statehood. So Jim was kind of hitting around at that. What that does, the fact that every state gets two electoral votes regardless of its population, is it provides more weight or more voting power to less populated states at the expense of more populated states. So the voting power of a citizen of Wyoming is much more powerful than in California.

Right. Yeah. They always mention Wyoming. Wyoming's the state that always gets me because that's like I thought that was a town just outside Utah. It's what there's like nine 900 000 people in the whole state right right and they get three electoral college votes so three families they've got like eight times the voting power than than do voters in california that's and i mean wyoming's big too there's just nobody there it's just like cowboys and i don't know yeah so so that's the controversy then right so that's just giving the Republicans to two votes. Well, I had three in Wyoming because they get to why do they get three? They get to automatically for being a state.

Yep. And then the one representate, one representative is the lowest number of representatives you have in the House of Representatives. So I was right. Three is the minimum. Yeah. Three is the minimum. So it's so it's two per state. And then however many representatives you have in the House, that's the additional number. Right. And so there's a handful of states that are at three, like the Dakotas, North and South Dakota. You've got Delaware is another one. Alaska is another one. Alaska. Yes, and Montana and Vermont are those states that have three electoral votes. And Washington, D.C. gets three electoral college votes as well through the amendment process. They cannot have any more than the state that has the least number of electoral college votes,

but they do get three votes in the electoral college. Because they're not considered a state. They're the capital, you see. Yeah, but there's probably more people in D.C. than Wyoming. Let me throw one out here. Let's see if I get this right. Hawaii gets five. Am I right?

Sure. All right. Is he right? Aloha to all of our Hawaiian listeners. Does Puerto Rico have anything or the other territories? The other territories do not. And that's one of the reasons why you're hearing a lot of chatter right now about Puerto Rico becoming a state, Washington, D.C. becoming a state. So not Puerto Rico for the Electoral College, but also

in the United States Senate, because the Senate, of course, also really overrepresents less populated states at the expense of more populated states. But it will make things worse. If they make Puerto Rico a state and they get three Electoral College votes votes they will definitely go to the republicans because they'll remember when trump threw those towels yeah they did they'll never forget that when he threw those paper towels they went you bought my vote my friend yeah they soaked up all the flooding with those paper towels yeah wait and so wait i i'm looking at wikipedia hawaii has five or four i'm like they might have four yeah. All right, Jim. Just throwing it out there. Yeah. Are they counting all the islands?

No. Kawhi gets zero. Let's get to see George Clooney. Okay. So and I asked him how many electoral votes in total. He said 140. How many did he win? 71.

What's the number? He's off by a little bit. Yeah. But the logic was right. So there's actually 435 members in the House of Representatives. That's a lot. Yeah. You should know that from your citizenship.

Yeah. 100 senators. And so you add those together. That's 535 plus your three votes from Washington, D.C. So there are 538 total electoral college votes, 270 for a majority. I'm so ashamed. That was a question in my citizenship test that I got correct.

Wait, the votes? The electoral college? That was one of the questions I actually got. Once you take the test, you're not supposed to remember the college. And I was like, fuck. That's how I got become, oh no. Jim became a citizen, what, two years ago?

Two years ago. Two years ago, so this is his first election. My first election, yeah. He had to take a test and he's forgotten everything. Yeah, and that was, they give you 100 questions and they ask you 10 of the questions and I think you've got to get 9 of the 10. I got all my 10 questions right

and one of my questions was that and I nailed it because it was one of the more difficult ones because it was 430 something, 435? 435, yeah. 435. And yeah, I should have known that. Then you just dumped that right out as soon as you took the test yeah that's literally what my students there was lots of questions who was

the first president who fucking knows how would you know yeah how would you know long ago there weren't cameras back yeah it's the first president george washington though what happened Are you a time traveler dude? You didn't know that? He never tells a lie You didn't know that it was George Washington? I didn't Okay I asked him how I asked Jim how many times

A candidate has won the popular vote and lost electoral college He said 12 And asked him the name He said Hillary Clinton, Al Gorere dukakis joe finkel bush senior johnson what's the correct answer finkel's right i'm kind of stuck on uh dukakis and johnson uh in the same sentence there but yeah yeah put my johnson in your dukakis clearly something's going on there. That sounds like my Google searches. But actually, it's kind of crazy because it's six.

It's six times that it's happened, which is about 10% of all presidential elections. So the fact that Jim was throwing 12 out there is pretty insane because most Americans would not think that it's happened very many times at all. And so that it's happened six times, it's a lot. It happened back in 1824. In fact, in that election, Andrew Jackson, he won a plurality of the electoral college votes, but not a majority. He also won a plurality of the popular vote. That then moved into a contingency election into the House of Representatives, vote. That then moved into a contingency election into the House of Representatives, where John Quincy Adams came out on top in that election. So Jackson was pretty pissed and really came after him in 1828 with a lot of populism and all that kind of stuff. So 1824, 1876, Rutherford B. Hayes versus Tilden. It was on the tip of me tongue. Rutherford B. Hayes versus Tilden it was on the tip of me tongue yeah

Rutherford B. Hayes yeah yeah he always he always talks about that one did he win who's that guy no Hayes was the president oh was he

yeah and here in the here in the the title Rutherfraud a lot of people call Rutherfraud not B. Hayes oh Mark Barron's

what no no I'm not saying I'm not saying Mark Barron's a fraud I'm just saying what the fuck okay I'll shut up I don't know what you're even saying what do you know is what the WTF

oh yeah for like now it means what the fuck and now what the fraud I was just saying that that was yeah so Hayes and Jackson or Hayes won and then we had Grover Cleveland in 1888 great name he got beat by Cookie Monster no Grover Cleveland won. Right? Then he was the president. Yeah, he won. He won.

We had a president named Grover Cleveland. And then people were complaining about Barack Obama as a weird name. Yeah. Then we had actually JFK. So John F. Kennedy, this is a surprise to a lot of people, but Kennedy actually lost the popular vote in 1960 to Richard Nixon because there was a division of electoral votes in Alabama where they, over time, it used to be that you could, when you and I go vote, we're actually voting for these electors. And they don't typically appear on the ballot. Okay. They used to appear on the ballot.

And in that election in 1960, there were unpledged electors. And then there were electors that were pledged directly to Kennedy. Well, they split their votes. Those unpledged electors were actually voting for a Dixiecrat, a Southern Democrat by the name of Harry. You ready for this one? That's what I call country music. by the name of Harry. You ready for this one? That's what I call country music. Harry Bird. Harry Bird was the candidate that they voted for.

And so when you actually take a look at that election, Nixon won the popular vote in 1960, but lost the electoral college. And then you're right with Bush and Gore, that guy with the environment in the year 2000. That election came down to 537 votes. That's insane. So it was a super, super close election just there.

And then, of course, in 2016, where Hillary Clinton gains about 3 million more votes than Donald Trump, but but but loses in the Electoral College. Was that the biggest popular vote like of all the ones that was the biggest gap was Hillary Clinton? Yeah, that was the biggest gap by far. And, you know, one thing that you kind of kind of talking about this and you're looking at the public opinion polls and all because it's a real possibility that that could happen again in this election, that Trump could lose the popular vote, but win in the electoral college. And one thing I want to point out is that back in 2016, there were about 10 to 15% of voters that still hadn't made their minds up completely in the last week or so of the election. And they broke decidedly for Donald Trump. The reality is, if about 40,000 people in just three states changed their minds, okay, which was 0.0008% of the votes cast total looked like. And I'll explain that as well. You know, if you win a state by one vote for almost all of the states, there's only two states that are not like this. But if you win a state by just one vote, you get 100 percent of those electoral college votes.

So it doesn't really reflect what happened in a state by state basis. And who are the two states that aren't like that and why? Maine and Nebraska. So Maine and Nebraska have what are referred to as a district election. So they break it down by congressional district. If you win the congressional district, you win that electoral college vote. The reason that Maine and Nebraska moved to that style is no candidate was going to Maine and Nebraska when it was just a popular vote in those states. So Barack Obama actually won a congressional district in Nebraska in 2008. Donald Trump won a congressional district in Maine in 2016. So that's

another kind of method that some people are looking at to kind of change how the electoral college process works. As you know, in California, nobody's going to California to campaign at all. If you broke it down by congressional districts, you would see a lot more campaign action after the conventions. Now, this is off topic just a little bit. I know Forrest has more questions. Now, in Australia, it is compulsory to vote everyone has to vote and you go in there with your license and you sign you off and you go to school and you vote and if you don't vote they send you a fine for when i was when i was voting in australia was like 60 bucks it's close i think it's closer to 200 now yeah now that was 20 years yeah i'm just saying 20

years ago 60 bucks so let's say it's 200200, $250 now, whatever it is, right? And so if you don't vote, they send you a bill. And now I had a period when I was living overseas where I still had to vote. I was living in England and I still had to vote in Australian elections. And I refused to vote because I wasn't living in the country and I didn't know the policies of these people because I wasn't seeing it on my news. I hadn't read anything.

So I thought it would be irresponsible of me to vote, so I just took the fine. plus i hate dealing with mail and anyway so so is there a time that you could see where that could happen in america where uh you can't even force people to wear masks in the middle of a pandemic in this country uh so i do not see something like that happening. You know, that American independence streak is awfully, awfully hard. And in fact, one of the things that you see here is instead of trying to get people to vote, you see a number of state governments trying to make sure that people can't vote or make it harder for people to vote. Now, I consider myself a moderate. I have mostly left-wing views, but I have some right-wing views that I have.

And one of my right-wing views is, and this might be unpopular to say, I think you should have to show up with your identification to vote. I don't understand this. Like when they go, the Republicans are making people use their identification. That's bad against minorities and stuff like that.

How the fuck else do we know that you're coming in and out with votes? And also just, you needed to get on, get on buy liquor cigarettes get on a fucking plane voting's a big responsibility i think people should have to show some form of identification when they go into the polling booths is that bigoted of me can someone explain why i'm wrong or why i'm right the the big argument would be that you, there's a difference between just having identification and photo identification. And the kinds of people that tend to not have photo identification tend to come from minorities and more impoverished areas. reasons why that you know most people in the united states would support having photo identification is it's a very middle class thing you know most middle class have photo id how do you not have just like you say how do you not have a photo identification but if you go you can't get into

bars without it yeah but the impoverished communities aren't going to bars they aren't flying on planes they aren't driving cars they aren't doing it they don't have access to that stuff regardless so all of these things that seem really normal to you. This sounds really weird. I know you're poor, but they're the fun things in life. Even when you're poor. I've been poor. I still went out to fucking bars.

No, but you haven't been this poor. I've been that poor. I've been that poor. I sincerely doubt it. I was in massive amounts of debt and had zero money, and it was dossing on people's couches, homeless. Not homeless, but I was sleeping on people's couches. I was in massive amounts of debt and had zero money, and it was Dossen on people's couches, homeless. Not homeless, but I was sleeping on people's couches. I was poor.

Some homeless people don't have access to people's couches. And I still found the time to get drunk every week. Your priorities were different. You didn't have kids. You didn't have a job that you were working. Okay, so work with 19 hours a day. You're doing it based on your experience. But there are people out there.

It doesn't cost anything to get identification. Yeah, it does. Yes, it does. What's it going to do to the DMV and just get that photo? First of all, it costs you to wait in line at the DMV, but it also costs money at the DMV to get identification. Yeah, it does. Yes, it does. Well, to go down to the DMV and just get that photo. First of all, it costs you to wait in line at the DMV, but it also costs money at the DMV to get it. But why would you wait in line to do an election? I don't want to sound bigoted.

I really don't. Yeah, but we're explaining it to you, and you're fighting against us. We're telling you the reason. I know, but I still think. I know, but you're wrong. I still think you should get ID. No, no, no.

You can have that belief, but you have to understand that what Professor is saying. I very rarely like agreeing with the Republicans. I know, but you have to hear what we're saying. I think your argument more so is against the system where that needs to be easily accessible to everybody, regardless of their income level or anything like that. Because you think about like, for instance. But how do you believe that person is who they say they are when they go in to have a vote, when they don't have ID?

It's a simple question. There are other forms of ID. Like there's EIN, which is how people pay their taxes and do all of that stuff. There are. I agree with that. If they have their tax papers and stuff like that. Yeah. You could have, I don't know, you could have maybe a piece of mail.

I don't know. What are the acceptable forms of ID that they accept? You're kind of hitting some of those things, whether it be a bank statement whether it be uh tax documents i mean and again so you have to have something you have to have something okay well i'm okay with that i'm okay with that okay that's fine and that's the difference between a photo identification and just an identification right so if you have a signature that that can connect with something then we're good to go yeah for instance for instance, like right now, they're making it illegal to fly if you don't have a real ID,

it's a new thing, or a passport. And a real ID, I'm getting one now because I'm changing my identification because I just moved to a new house and I want to get that address in there since I have the place and it's permanent.

And to get a real ID, forget about it being a pandemic, to get a real ID is a pain in the fucking ass and I have modes of transportation. I have time to do it. I have money to go get real idea. It's a pain in the fucking ass. And I have modes of transportation. I have time to do it. I have money to go get it. And it's a pain in the ass.

You can fly without identification, but you'll be taken off in two or three. No, no, no. And you'll be patted down. The new law that's passed is you cannot. You have to have a real ID or a passport. Well, I've traveled plenty of times without identification. No, no, no. But what if you travel somewhere and you lose your wallet?

You can't get home? Yeah, you can get stuff. You have to live there like Groundhog Day? Yeah, you have to go through extra security stuff. No, that's what they do. They take you into a room. They pad you down. Basically, strip search you before you land on the plane

because people are legally allowed to move freely within the country. It's domestic travel. But I've had it twice where I've lost my identification while I've been... Are you sure you weren't just trying to get frisked? Yeah. Yeah. It seems like he's trying to, you know, get the strip search. Yeah.

Yeah. They found the idea during the strip search. Like, why did you make us do this? I love getting fisted. Nobody will do it. They make me wait in a room and then they come in and I'm bent over the table with my ass cheeks parted. And they go, no, no, no.

We believe you are who you said you are. It's all fine. We saw your Netflix special. You might want to check. It's for drugs in my butthole. All right, I don't even know where we're at here. We're talking electoral college, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Sometimes.

My butthole was always going to come up. It always does. Fair enough. How are electoral votes divided? We already went over that. That is based on the number of representatives plus the two votes that you get. When did the Electoral College begin and like how did that come about? So the original Electoral College was something that the framers, they had a lot of argumentation over in Philadelphia.

And and so they struggled with it a bit. in Philadelphia. And so they struggled with it a bit. And originally, they came up with a system where it would be divided up based upon the states and the population, but also that electors would be wise, judicious individuals that would be able to use their discretion to vote for whom they thought would be the best president of the United States. And so originally electors were given two votes and whoever received the most votes would become president and whoever received the second most votes would become vice president. That fell apart after the presidency of George Washington because what happened was the rise of the two-party system. And so with that two-party system, you had John Adams get the most votes in that third election, and Thomas Jefferson, who is his

political rival, get the second most votes. So you had these rivals cohabitating there as president and vice president. By the third election, they ran as a ticket. And what happened was Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr tied because their electors each cast one vote for each of them. So they tied, which meant that the election had to be thrown into the House of Representatives as a contingency election. They battled over this election, 35 ballots by the 36th ballot. They finally came up and said, Jefferson is our guy. By the 1804 election, they realized we've got to change this original electoral college with the 12th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution that says that an elector casts one vote for president, one vote for vice president. So that really cemented the power of political parties and the notion of a ticket. So kind of moving beyond that, you saw that the original electoral college

really fell by the wayside within a decade. Wow. And that's how the musical Hamilton was made, right? I just heard Aaron Burr it all sounds very complicated it is it is well and then it wasn't surely we can't just do a world's strongest man competition that was our last guest

when people then owned slaves wasn't that a huge part of the electoral college and deciding well who brought that up deciding the population and how many electors people got because they were counting

their slaves in the population but the slaves didn't have the ability to vote. I, I'm, I may be messing up. I know. I know some information. Okay.

I got some information. Okay. So black people, black men were allowed to vote before women. There you go. Chuck that out there. Take that truth bomb. He's got 7.105 now.

So black people got the vote first. Okay, I'll ask you. What country was the first country to give women the vote? I'm going to say Australia. No, no, no. I don't know. New Zealand. See, they've been troublemakers for bloody years, that country.

They're constantly making mistakes. Yeah, they have zero COVID cases right now. New Zealand. New Zealand were the first people to give women the vote. Her name was Sharon. Sharon. they're constantly making mistakes yeah they have zero covid cases new zealand new zealand were the first people to give women the vote her name was sharon sharon and uh there's two other blokes living in the country a lot of opinions just let her fucking vote so yeah i did forget to ask that question as as slavery and as it refers to electoral college that so yeah kelly was so the the what what what happened of course, she's absolutely right. Like, you know, in our Constitution, when you're talking about slaves as being fifths of a person, and it's just crazy that that's enshrined there.

Right. But that created an alliance during the debates between less populated states and slave-holding states. That's why they really wanted that Senate representation to be part of the Electoral College, because that would give them more representation, given that slaves were only three-fifths of a human being. And doing 95% of the work. Yeah. That's not a good system. Yeah, slavery was a bad system.

We can agree on that. I'd like to speak out against slavery. Breaking news. I don't know about that. I'll tell you something I do know about. Slavery is bad. It's bad. All right.

It's not too hard to condemn. So I asked Jim how the electoral college, how they select the electors that vote. He said job interview and they are paid. So, yeah, how do they get selected and then how are they compensated? But first, how they get selected, like how. So each state has their number of electors. And in most states, they run for that office.

It's a position. So they run for that office. It's a position. So they run for that office at their state conventions. So their political parties are the ones who usually choose them. Either they run for it at a state convention or a party committee at the state level will determine their electors. California and Pennsylvania are a little bit different. California in particular is really an interesting case because it's the only state where the congressional candidates, Democrat and Republican, get to choose who their electors are. And then they become the electors for their party. And I once had an elector in these surveys say, well, let me tell you how I became an elector. I went to a

party meeting of my representative in California. And they said, well, who me tell you how I became an elector. I went to a party meeting of my representative in California and they said, well, who wants to be an elector? And everybody raises their hands and they put everybody's name in a hat. They pick it out of a hat and they say, oh, so-and-so is going to be an elector, which is mind-blowing when you think about this is how we run our representatives they should have drawn straws or had a feat of power or something a lot of power just a feat of so we any of us could be an elector in here now he's this one is being elected like a first step your first step into politics to then becoming a senator or a governor and eventually the president or or or is it some

is something completely different or is that something people get into to get into politics? So a couple of things. One, you cannot be a federal officeholder. There's very few stipulations on being an elector, but you cannot be a federal officeholder. Separation of powers issue. The second is that for most of these people, they are very strong partisans. They've been around the political party for many, many years.

Many of them are like state party chairs or county party chairs. So it's seen as a reward for all of the work that they've done on behalf of the party. So these are, you know, they look a lot like Congress, can't be members of Congress. And they don't get paid? The only payment that they receive, they cannot get paid other than a per diem. So they get a per diem to attend the Electoral College meeting. They only meet for one day. That's it. They meet that one day, about six weeks after you and I go and vote to cast their electoral votes.

And in many states, they offer tickets to the inauguration to these electors. And all the candy they can eat. That's nice. Yeah, yeah. Let's see. They're in for the candy corns. Happens around October. They all meet.

It's spooky. Yeah, yeah. They get everyone's Halloween candy. Okay, faithless elector. This is where Jim gave up. He just said i don't know what do you think faithless means oh yeah you did answer this one they don't believe in they don't believe in god but i believe in god um this is why you were in the supreme court right there's the faith yeah yeah what was the faithless elector so a faithless elector so again we're voting for these people then they go off and cast their vote. And in a faithless elector, somebody who does not vote as expected. So let's say Joe Biden wins the state of California, you expect those 55 electors in California to all vote for Joe Biden. An elector that would not vote for Joe Biden would be called a faithless elector. We've seen faithless electors.

Wait a minute. I'm so confused now. So they don't have to vote for what we vote them in? No. They can just vote differently after we vote in them. Oh, well, yeah. What the fuck's going on? Now we've got some faceless guy telling me what's going on.

Both. He's faceless and faithless. Yeah. It's scary. It's true. Well, and when i started doing research on electors just trying to find out demographics like who are these people and i started finding out that a lot of them actually think about not voting as they're

supposed to 99 of them vote exactly as they're supposed to again they're they're strong partisans. And in about 33 states, they have laws that take a pledge to vote according to the popular vote of that state. But then it's like pointless, right? I mean, if they have to do it, it's like, just do the popular vote. Yeah, just do the popular vote. We don't even need these people. Just have these figures, these imaginary figures. Because then someone doesn't like Trump, and then Trump wins Florida.

And then they go, oh oh does he yeah like that yeah this is a dodgy system fair dinkum well brett kavanaugh interestingly during the uh during the supreme court case asked probably one of the most poignant questions he just said well what's the point of having an elector at all like why do we have these guys yeah what's the point of having an elector at all. Like, why do we have these guys? Yeah, what's the point of having an elector at all? Beer me! I like beer. Was that a saying? Beer me? I like beer. I like beer. Squee, pass me a beer.

Chuck is one of those cold ones. What are we voting for? So a faithless elector, though, all of their votes are on record, so if they did vote against what the state had decided, we could publicly berate them. Well, OK, ready for this one? I don't know. So in 2004 in Minnesota, there was an elector that was done. They did not attach

their names to it. And an elector in Minnesota voted for John Edwards, who was running as the vice presidential nominee with John Kerry. He voted for John Edwards twice. So John Edwards actually has a vote for president of the United States in 2004, and no elector in Minnesota owned up to it. Immediately after that, the state of Minnesota passed a law saying if you vote contrary to expectations, The state of Minnesota passed a law saying if you vote contrary to expectations, if you vote as a faithless elector and the vote now needs to be in public, then you can be removed as an elector. What they actually said was, okie dokie, then here's what's going to happen here. No silly billies anymore. I don't even remember John Edwards name.

I was like, that's who Kerry was running with. OK. Too many Johns. Yeah. And so I'm sorry. Who was that bloke's who Kerry was running with? Okay. Too many Johns. Yeah. And so, I'm sorry. Who was that bloke who was Hillary's vice president? Is he down in Mexico now sunning himself? No, he's Virginia. That was his whole thing.

I haven't heard about him at all. Yeah, yeah. He spoke a bit of Spanish. And that's all he had going for him. Fuck, he was a wet blanket. Hola. Yeah, yeah, yeah. She's just, go out there and speak Spanish.

And he's like, gracias. And then like. This is Montana. We don't speak that here he was fucking hopeless that fucker i don't even think she won virginia did she i don't actually know yeah that was his home state that was i think she did oh she did okay well that's that was his whole purpose probably just give us that state but um so why were you in the Supreme Court? What was the case then? So you're going to love this. In 2016, and I had been writing about this for quite a while, because in the surveys of electors, I had found that a lot of them consider voting faithlessly. And I find that to be absolutely crazy. And I've been making the argument that we should, you know, just go with whatever the popular will is in that state. We shouldn't have faithless electors. So as soon as Trump wins, there started this movement. You might recall,

you know, you even had Charlie Sheen and Lady Gaga and others kind of saying, you know, electoral college, save us. It was even on Saturday Night Live saying, you know, we know you're an elector, save us from Trump. And so they knew that there was one last gasp effort to try and derail Trump from gaining the presidency. So a number of electors themselves started reaching out inside the electoral college to convince enough electors, and I think it was 30, I think they needed 37 electors. If 37 electors had denied Republican electors, denied Trump their votes, then they would have thrown it into the House of Representatives. And they were trying to do that to not get Hillary Clinton to be the president of the United States, but to get some other Republican president of the United

States like John Kasich or Colin Powell or Mitt Romney. So these elect in Washington state, there were four electors in Washington state that voted for various people that were not Hillary Clinton. One of the votes actually went for, for faith spotted Eagle, who has a vote in the president's faith spotted Eagle. Who's that? He's a Native American and activist in Washington state.

Oh, that makes sense. That was an actual eagle. And then there was an elector in Colorado who wrote in John. Called Mal High Ted. And so they removed the elector in Colorado. They fined the electors in Washington state. They challenged it and said, but the constitution allows us to be free agents. In fact, during this whole time period, they actually demanded, and there were a couple of Republicans that signed

onto this too, Republican electors. They said, look, before we cast our electoral college votes, we would like to get an intelligence briefing from the National Security Affairs so we could find out what tell us about this Russian interference before we actually cast our electoral college votes. Obama's director of national intelligence said, we're not going to give you that briefing. Just go cast your votes. So the whole idea of electors being free agents went by the wayside for sure there, challenged it in court, the Supreme Court used some of the research that we had conducted. And they said that states are allowed to have laws to remove an elector who does not vote as expected. The problem with that, so if we want to remove an elector, we can do that. So try and remove that uncertainty. The problem is there's only 14 states that have those laws on the books right now. So there's over 400 electors that are still, there would be no punishment, no opportunity to remove them if they voted for Jim Jeffries to be president of the United States.

Oh, my God. I'm not allowed. I wasn't born here. I feel like they've given me every right of being an American, but I'm a bit bitter about that. You can be governor of the state. Oh, governor. That's easy enough to become governor.

I could do that in my sleep. I'd like i'd like to give president a go no you wouldn't i think you would really hate it schedule yeah the social media comments alone they don't like me i'm getting a lot of hate on the web this week why do they keep calling me fat like jim we're talking about policy here. It's like, but this guy thinks I'm fat. Yeah.

I don't think you should run for office at all. Yeah. Allegedly, I'm only 10 pounds lighter than Donald Trump, and I'm three inches shorter. Yeah. It's just he's a guy who tells the truth. He carries it different than us, yeah. Yeah, he's 10 pounds heavier than me. I don't need to see the taxes.

I need to see his feet on the scale. Yeah. That's what I need. I don't think I want to see his feet. He'd to see his feet on the scale. That's what I need. I don't think I want to see his feet. He'd have some red feet, wouldn't he? Some orangey feet. What if his feet had two pairs? Anybody that ages feet, I don't want to see.

My feet look way worse than they did 10 years ago. Oh, I have lovely feet. You do? Yeah, I do have nice feet, yeah. I don't do hard work. Show them later. There's no calluses. You just kick them up. They're soft as a baby's feet. I think you're supposed work. Show them later. There's no calluses. You just kick them up.

They're soft as a baby's feet. I think you're supposed to say bottom. No, no, no. They're not that soft. We don't make references to baby's asses on this podcast. They're like baby's little wrinkly feet. It's like those ones. Cute.

All right. So how does that work? Same size. It's very hard to balance. That's why he's bad at running. It's like walking on peg legs. So that was the last question. Then how does that in this election?

Is that something we need to be worried about? Because when Trump is saying elections rigged and blah, blah, blah, and this and that, does that mean these electoral voters? I mean, is there a chance of that happening or is that are we supposed to be scared of that? Is another thing to put on the list of being scared of? Oh, my God. So there's a couple of things to maybe. I thought you were going to say no. I thought you were going to say no. All right. The problem is now is like I've been getting calls, you know, about crisis elections from from from media. That's not good. That's not good when you're reaching out to scholars about

crisis elections and rigged elections and that kind of thing. It's not normal. And I can't say with certainty and say, yeah, that's nothing you need to worry about. So the possibility of those potential faithless electors is there. Another crazy scenario, you know, so this, as we're taping it we just found out uh it uh you know president trump has tested positive for coronavirus you've got two 70 year olds running for you know the highest office in the land uh you got coronavirus on the loose uh if god forbid something would happen to either of them and they were to die after the election if they were to die after the election but before the election college meets in those state and that's actually happened

it's actually happened i'm sorry what date does the electoral college meet they meet in mid-december so they meet mid-december so there's about six weeks they're all there in ugly sweaters first they have their candy meeting six weeks. They're all there in ugly sweaters. First they have their candy meeting, then their sweater party. Sorry everyone, I'm carrying some electoral white. We'll do Secret Santa first and then we'll vote for president.

Okay, so if one of them dies in between the election and the electoral, okay, then what happens? If one of them were to pass away, if God forbid something like that were to happen, in those states where they bind an elector, so that Supreme Court case could come back to be a problem. Because then the elector, if they were bound to vote for one of them and that person won, then they'd have to vote for that person, right? Unless that state had some other law kind of saying, no, you can change your vote at that point. But I've not seen that. In that case, if I voted for candidate X and candidate X passed away, when Congress would go to count those votes. So they count their votes in early January.

And if there are any disputed electoral college votes, Congress gets to resolve that matter. votes, Congress gets to resolve that matter. If it was enough electoral college votes given to a dead person, when Horace Greeley died, he was the one that died in between, the Congress did not count those votes for Horace Greeley. That could deny a candidate a majority of electoral college votes. When you say Congress, I'm sorry, the House, the representatives and the Senate both? Or yeah, just the House. Yes. Okay.

Yes. And if that were to happen, if no candidate then receives a majority, then you move into that House contingency procedure. Yeah. The House of Representatives would choose among the top three vote getters and the senate would actually choose who the vice president would be if there were

there so i got a headache so so wait it's painful it's so painful if uh yeah i'm sure you don't know anything about australian politics why would you i'm not i'm not saying that you wouldn't know i don't okay okay but we had something happen in australia called the dismissal and that happened in the 70s and um so we had two prime ministers and we have our two parties are uh labor and liberal and there's one left one right similar system a two-party system. I believe, I might have this the wrong way around, I believe the Labor government was in and then the Governor-General, now the Governor-General is the Queen's representation, right? And they're meant to have no power at all, they're just a figurehead. But somewhere in the

fine print, it said that the queen's representation can just fire the prime minister and they just move governments we move from liberal to labor or labor to liberal we just like literally one person went like just to give you an example when you can fuck off republicans we're having democrats and it was just like in the middle of their term is there anything that can happen like that over here because that that was that's still meant they Republicans were having Democrats and it was just like in the middle of their term. Is there anything that can happen like that over here? Because that was that's still meant. They still talk about in Australia as being this bizarre thing in the middle. I would not say at that level to have the one person.

But the concern would be Congress if they were to have that contingency election. You wouldn't even vote by however many representatives you have in the Congress. So it could be that Democrats could control the Congress, but you vote state by state and by a state delegation in that contingency procedure. So you have more checks and balances. Yeah. A bigger vote. It can happen. So let's say. Yeah, sorry. No, go ahead. Let's say Biden wins and then during, after the election,

Trump dies, then that means we go to the House and that's Democrat. Well, it depends from that. It still would be this election. So the Democrats would most likely pick Biden,

but then the Senate is still Republican, so they would probably pick Pence or they could pick whoever they wanted to. Well, if no, if let's say, let's say there was a tie.

And in fact, all it would take is two or three states to change from 2016 to have an electoral college tie. Yeah. Wouldn't that be fun? Forgot to ask that.

Then neither president or vice president would have a majority. And that's when you would go to that house for the president. And then the Senate would be for the Vice President. By the polling that we're at right now, it would be the new Congress and the new Senate that would have this contingency procedure. The House would still be controlled by Democrats most likely, but the number of delegations – so there might be one more delegation or two more delegations that would be Republican.

The Senate very well could end up in the hands of Democrats. OK, so they're polling much better in the Senate than they are, than Republicans are. And so what we could see is a Trump gets selected in the House. And Harris gets selected in the House and Harris gets selected in the Senate. Now, I don't wish death upon anybody or anything like that, but what happens if before the election, say two days before the election,

Trump dies of COVID, does Pence just take over right then again? Do we delay anything? Or what happens in that? Because that's a scenario that could happen. Or if Biden dies right before. I don't think the vote ever gets well well we i mean look this is coming out in 11 that just surveyed it but trump's sick now we don't know how sick he is but if he died before the election at all yeah yeah if he dies before the election very close to election

does the vice just take over or is there another thing that was a stalling thing or what happens there well i think they would still have the election uh and i think they would probably just take over? Or is there another thing that was a stalling thing? Or what happens there? I think they would still have the election. And I think that they would probably still stay committed to their tickets. But like I said, some of those problems might arise when the Electoral College would actually meet and who they could vote for at that point. My guess is that, you know, there'd be enough uncertainty there that if it were Trump that were to pass away, that, you know, they would say Mike Pence, if indeed Trump were to win that, that, you know, the Electoral College, that they would then move that over to Pence as the vice president. And Pence would have to pick a vice president very quickly. Yes. Yeah.

Well, we did an episode on cryptocurrency, and this is only slightly less confusing than that, I would say. I mean, I feel like you've explained it so well. No, you have. You have explained it. The fact that this even exists is so fucking mind-blowing because it doesn't make any sense that we're using this. Do you prefer the Electoral College, or do you think we should just have a popular vote?

So when I started studying this, I didn't think too much about it. The more I have studied the Electoral College, the more complicated you can see that it is. And I feel like a basic requirement of any electoral process is that people understand it. And the fact that so few people understand it, that's why I graded you on a curve. You got the gist.

Yeah. Like, like, like, like if I can't understand it, God help us all. It's, it's a complicated process and, and, you know, it's hard to claim legitimacy when 3 million more people vote for your opponent. Right. And so to kind of move to that direct popular vote, every vote counts. And the reality is under the current electoral college process, a lot of the argument is that if we were to move to a direct popular vote,

you know, the candidates would only go to the New York and California. Well, as it is right now, candidates aren't going to any of those states with just three electoral college votes. They don't vote in those states at all. They don't do any advertising there. If you had a direct popular vote, you'd see candidates moving all throughout the country. Wait a minute, I live in California. You're saying we've

got no advertising here? What are the other fucking states up to? No, no, no. Just the ones with three. Oh, you don't advertise to those. Oh! Okay. Making new fans um yeah because because it is great when you when you go to like iowa for instance where i guess there's four or five i don't know how many um it's like you go there and you when you look at election day that like iowa usually goes to a republican a lot of the times but then you look

at the election it's like 1.4 million for Republican, 1.2 for Democrat. So it's still like, it's not like the whole state is red. It's like most states are pretty down the middle. Even Texas is getting closer and closer. Even California, there's still like millions of people that vote Republican in California.

We need to, we need to move the border in a bit. Oh, from the agriculture? Yeah. Just around Fresno and Bakersfield. Orange County. Orange County can be its own state.

The biggest echo chamber in the world. All right, so here's a part of the show we have called Dinner Party Facts where the expert gives us a fact, obscure or interesting, that the audience can use to impress people on their knowledge of the subject of the Electoral College. You got any interesting facts of the Electoral College. You got any interesting facts about the Electoral College people could throw out at a dinner party or a bar or something?

I got a couple, and you can determine how interesting they are. We'll have a vote. My vote's worth three. Kelly's is worth two. Jack's worth one. Forrest's worth two. Cornerboy, you get two. What, I get one?

I'm a state though. Nice. That's it. Oh, shit. Corner boy's coming up. In Pennsylvania, the candidates get to choose who their electors are. And in Pennsylvania, one year, Franco Harris, NFL superstar from the Pittsburgh Steelers, Hall of Famer, served as a presidential elector in the state of Pennsylvania

for Barack Obama. Bill Clinton. That's good because he doesn't have concussions or anything like that. He signed his certificate. CTE has not affected this vote. He signed his certificate. CTE has not affected this vote. Bill Clinton actually got to cast an electoral college vote for Hillary Clinton in 2016 as an elector from New York. That's legal? Yeah, how is that a thing? That is interesting. I mean, she won New York, though.

She won New York, but still. I know, but why is Bill just... Because he's Bill I mean he's a former president you think a former president wouldn't be allowed to have this job I I don't yeah he seduced him with a saxophone yeah um all right I haven't seen him play saxophone since he got elected it's been 27 years I haven't seen the man play saxophone. And then Jack's like this. Hey-o!

You guys remember that? Slam dunk. I don't. You got any Monica Lewinsky jokes? No, those are outdated. He was probably hiding a stained dress. Whoa! Be here all week.

My mom did work in the White House when Clinton was in office. Kelly's mom used to run, do like parties and functions and parties whenever there was parties she was there blowing up balloons and all sorts i don't think her mom was blowing up yeah she was telling me i was worried when you said she was there blowing i was like oh god where's he going with this and then you're like the balloons got it uh your mom i've been to one of your mom's parties she knows that organizer she was great I've done more tours of the White House than I ever wanted in my life. Lucky. So you have those two facts?

Yeah, I think those. Yeah, they're good ones. They're good ones. Bill Clinton did a cast of vote. Look at that. And Franco Harris. Was he the Immaculate Reception? I don't know.

I think so. He was the Immaculate Reception. Yeah, yeah. I mean, I once had an elector. I had electors come to the Immaculate Reception. Yeah, yeah. I mean, I once had an elector. I had electors come to Little Ohio Northern University in Ada. And I had them give a little presentation. And one of those electors kind of wanted to befriend me.

My wife was pregnant at the time. And she ended up coming back and giving us like a, my daughter's favorite blankie that she still has like 15 years later, if that is important. Yeah, that's a sweet story. They're real people. They're real people. If you take anything away from the podcast, they're real people.

All right. And that applies to anyone. So we want to thank you for being here, Dr. Robert Alexander. Again, his Twitter handle is at ONUPROF. His book is called Representation in the Electoral College. We have a link to that. We also have an image of it.

And then you're doing a series of articles for CNN now, right? Yeah, we can put a link up for that about the Electoral College and voting and stuff like that. So that's pretty cool. It means you're an expert still. We just need to let people know you're an expert on the show. Thank you for being here today. Thank you for being on the show, Doctor. We very much appreciate it.

I think I learned some things, but I may have to listen to this back to get all the very interesting. Ladies and gentlemen, if you're ever at a party and someone bothers you about the Electoral College, go listen to the Jim Jefferies podcast, and I still don't know about that. Next week. I disagree.

I learned a ton. Oh, yeah. Also, sorry. I forgot. Please follow us on Instagram for us. ID Kat, I-D-K-A-T podcast on Instagram. And go to the YouTube channel, Jim Jeffries. Subscribe, rate, review.

Five stars only. Hey, everybody. rate review five stars only everybody Jason Ellis here from the Jason Ellis show podcast reminding you that my podcast new episodes every Wednesday downloadable where all podcasts are available come see my friends Michael and Kevin as we talk to you about what's awesome, what sucks, fitness, fighting, parenting, life, spin kicks, LGBTQ community, how to defend yourself against a shark if it attacks you out of nowhere, and much, much more. So come join us.