Safeguard: An Electoral College Story

Watch this movie yourself and you decide whether or not you think we have a fair electoral college system. Don't believe the one star raters, watch and learn and make your own choice. Do the work. 9 out of 10 stars from this moderate.

First of all, this is not about the workings of the electoral college. It's a 77 minute commercial defending the continued existence of the antiquated electoral college.

Their arguments don't even make sense. They say that without the electoral college a candidate could win without a majority of the popular vote and that wouldn't be right. Then they claim that Lincoln only won because of the existence of the electoral college. But he also won the popular vote with 39%. So, even WITHOUT the electoral college, he would have won. They are contradicting themselves because they can't keep their "alternative facts" straight.

An interesting history of the electoral college. It was billed as a non-partisan documentary, however, I started to question its slant after showing highly flattering footage of republicans and awkward unflattering footage of democrats.

The discussion on whether or not to abolish the electoral college was one-sided in favor of keeping it in place. The arguments for eliminating it were not even presented explicitly, but only mentioned negatively in talking points for keeping it.

It also never delved into the question of updating the number of electors each state gets based on current populations. It didn't even present it as a potential option.

After questioning its impartiality, I came here to find it was apparently funded by a right wing group. In the future, they may not want to be obvious in their propaganda.

Excuse the fact this doc is made by a person who has made right-wing docs before. This doc does a good job of breakdown the history of our electoral system and it does breakdown pros and cons, but of course people will not like it. The biggest and seemingly only argument I see is that majority (popular vote) is suppose to always win. I personally would like more real debate on both sides but those days are gone. They breakdown why the founding fathers did not want that and it actually does make sense. They talked about Lincoln, but he won because there were more voters in the north and electoral votes in the north. I already know some folks won't like it cause the already have it in their minds the system must go, but it is true if you complain about the 1%, then you know the 1% can buy votes for majority, even though it is hard if not possible to trust the 'body of electors'. Another thing is true, if they get rid and still don't get what they want, they still will scream 'rigged' and 'corrupt'. So honestly what does it really matter...

For an outsider living in a country with a multitude of political parties, but just one state in one nation, its easy to see how a democratic system should work. ive always found the american election system unfair and undemocratic, until i saw this documentary, that really solved some of the clues, whats easy to forget is that usa is a FEDERATION OF 50-51 SOVEREIGN STATES, and therefore completely impossible to manage with a system of election as for example here in norway.

so this is a comprehensive look at a nondemocratic but comprehensive system of election of a federal president of the united states of america. so the solution for every wailing and angry democracy for all fighters, must be to dissolve the federation, and elect prime ministers for each and every state, based on a multipartysystem as in norway... but now the grumpy old man sees that this will lead to chaos. a dull but informative documentary it is.