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The Electoral College, explained - Video học tiếng Anh
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The Electoral College, explained
The Electoral College, explained
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0:00
if you watch the news during a
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presidential election you'll hear a lot
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of this what do the national polls look
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like hillary clinton's national league
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nationally joe biden is currently ahead
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but these national polls don't actually
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tell you who's going to win throw the
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national polls out the window they don't
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matter at all what matters are those
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swing states ah yes the swing states
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most democracies around the world elect
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their head of state with a popular vote
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so whoever gets the most votes wins
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but in america we do it a little
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differently
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the u.s is the only country that picks
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its president using something called the
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electoral college it's made up of
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delegates from each u.s state when
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americans vote for president what
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they're actually voting for is who their
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state will vote for
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this is why every so often someone wins
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the presidency without winning the
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popular vote that's happened twice in
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just the past 20 years
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the majority of americans do not like
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the system and haven't for a long time
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both political parties have made
1:00
attempts to get rid of it so why does
1:03
the u.s still use the electoral college
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and who actually benefits from it
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the electoral college is based on how
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people are represented in congress where
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each state has a number of
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representatives based on its population
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and every state also gets two senators
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so for example let's look at texas which
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has a huge population and vermont which
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has a really small one texas has 36
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representatives in congress vermont only
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gets one
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representatives in both states each
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represent roughly the same number of
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people
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in the electoral college a state gets
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the same number of delegates as their
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congressional representatives plus two
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for each senator so texas has 38
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electoral votes vermont has three
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but this combination makes the number of
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people each delegate represents way
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different between states
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in texas one electoral delegate
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represents three times the amount of
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people as one in vermont
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and that makes each individual person's
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vote in vermont a lot more influential
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the electoral college creates
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discrepancies like this all over the
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country
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a voter in wyoming is worth three and a
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half times as much as a voter in
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california
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and the winner of the presidential
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election is the candidate who gets 270
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or more of these electoral college votes
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[Music]
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these are the results of the 2016
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election by state
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you're probably more familiar with this
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version of it a map of red states and
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blue states
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but this chart tells a different story
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you can see that no state is actually
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all red or all blue
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but almost every state awards its
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electoral votes the same way the
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candidate who gets the most votes in a
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state gets all its electoral votes
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if they win the state by one percent
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they win a hundred percent of the
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electoral votes
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in 2016 more than four million people
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voted for donald trump in california in
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fact more people voted for him there
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than in any other state except for two
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but it didn't matter hillary clinton got
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more votes there so she got all 55 of
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its electoral votes
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clinton never even campaigned in
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california polling showed she'd easily
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win the state
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trump only visited texas once he knew
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he'd basically had that state's
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electoral votes locked but they both
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visited florida 35 or more times
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that's because florida is usually a
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swing state polls show that the vote
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there could swing to one party or
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another nearly every election
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trump only won it in 2016 by 100 000
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votes out of more than 9 million
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swing seats have changed over time
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thanks to shifting demographics and
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political views and it's states like
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these where presidential candidates
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spend most of their time campaigning
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it also means these states have way more
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influence over the election than these
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ones
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a study found that voters in michigan
4:00
had 51 times the amount of influence on
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the 2016 election as someone from a
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state like utah voters in states like
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california or missouri mattered very
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little
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swing states are where the election
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actually takes place they get the
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attention and the influence and they
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only exist because of the electoral
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college
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it doesn't seem very fair but the
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electoral college has always shifted
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power away from some people and towards
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others it was how it was designed
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back when there were just a few states
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not 50 they had to get all the states to
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agree on the constitution
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one problem the northern states which
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were largely anti-slavery wanted only
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free people to count in the population
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towards electoral votes which they had
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more of
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the pro-slavery southern states were
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worried that they would be constantly
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outvoted and wanted enslaved people to
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count in determining the population
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as a compromise they settled on
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something called the three-fist clause
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it established that an enslaved person
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would only count as three-fifths of a
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person
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in 1800 pennsylvania northern state and
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virginia a southern one had about the
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same number of free people living there
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but virginia was also home to hundreds
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of thousands of enslaved people who had
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no freedom let alone a vote and ended up
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with more votes in the electoral college
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than pennsylvania that year those extra
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electoral votes gave the candidate from
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virginia just enough to win
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even after the u.s finally abolished
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slavery and eventually gave black
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americans the right to vote white
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southern leaders found ways to keep them
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from voting like with discriminating
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laws like poll taxes and acts of
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violence
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this meant they continued to have
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over-representation in the electoral
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college on behalf of a large population
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that couldn't vote
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the first time congress attempted to
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replace the electoral college with a
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simple popular vote was back in 1816 but
6:00
senators from southern states blocked it
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saying it would be deeply injurious to
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them
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in 1969 congress came even closer
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replacing the electoral college had
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support in both parties and even passed
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the house but it was blocked again by
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southern senators a senator from alabama
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wrote the electoral college is one of
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the south's few remaining political
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safeguards let's keep it
6:24
why change a system that historically
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had and still was benefiting white
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southerners
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today the states that the electoral
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college benefits have changed but it's
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still making some voters more powerful
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than others if we look at the states
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with a lot of electoral votes for not a
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lot of people and the states with a
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little electoral votes for a lot of
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people these states are a lot wider and
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less diverse than the rest of america
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and many of these states are republican
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strongholds
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these tend to vote democratic
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that's one reason the two most recent
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republican presidents have won the
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electoral college without winning the
7:01
popular vote
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and since it's currently democrats that
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are primarily disadvantaged by the
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electoral college they're the ones
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leading the charge to replace it with a
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popular vote get rid of the electoral
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college
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but as politics have changed the people
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most critical of the electoral college
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have two in the 1948 presidential
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election new york ended up being the
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major swing state a congressman from
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texas said i have no objection to the
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negro and harlem voting but i do resent
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the fact that his vote is worth a
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hundred times as much as the vote of a
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white man in texas
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swing states change what doesn't is that
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the electoral college gives certain
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people more power to pick the president
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and its biggest defenders have always
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been those who benefit the most from it
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[Music]
7:55
thanks to absolute who sponsored this
7:57
video to remind all americans to make
7:59
the time to vote absolute doesn't
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influence our editorial but they do make
8:03
videos like this possible so drink
8:05
responsibly and vote responsibly
