Victoria Bassetti
The Brennan Center for Justice
Wilfred U. Codrington
Brooklyn Law School
Larry Diamond
The Hoover Institution
James S. Fishkin
The Center for Deliberative Democracy
Reed Hundt
Making Every Vote Count
Kevin Johnson
Election Reformers Network
Alexander Keyssar
Harvard University
David Kopel
The Cato Institute
Derek T. Muller
Iowa College of Law
Richard Painter
University of Minnesota Law School
Jack Rakove
Stanford University
Eileen Reavey
National Popular Vote
Rob Richie
FairVote
Alice Siu
The Center for Deliberative Democracy
Cynthia Terrell
RepresentWomen
Norman R. Williams
Willamette University College of Law
In order for our deliberation to be fact-based and balanced, we have organized an bipartisan advisory board of experts for and against the proposals. They lend their expertise to ensure that our briefing materials are fair, accurate, and comprehensive.
The Advisory Board
In the United States, we elect our president through the Electoral College. This system has governed presidential elections for our nation’s entire history and, for much of that history, it has been the subject of political controversy.
DELIBERATIONS.US: The Electoral College is an hour-long deliberation on three proposals for reforming the way we elect presidents.
You’ll be a part of an hour-long discussion on a specially designed video chat app. On this platform, you’ll be assigned to a small, diverse group of fellow Americans. In this group, you’ll learn how the Electoral College works, three of the proposals for changing it, and the arguments for and against those proposals — arguments approved by our bipartisan advisory board of experts.
A national popular vote, in which the presidential candidate that receives the most votes nationwide wins, is the most well-known proposal for changing the Electoral College. A national popular vote has been the most well-known proposal for changing the Electoral College.
Fractional proportional allocation of electoral votes is a theoretical alternative to the winner-take-all system used by 48 states. In winner-take-all, all of a state’s electoral votes goes to the candidate that gets the most votes in that state.
Over the past two decades, ranked-choice voting has gained traction in local, state, and federal electoral systems. In 2020, four states used RCV in some of their presidential primaries and two states—Maine and Alaska—now use it during presidential general elections.
Deliberation for Education
Our deliberations are designed to be integrated into both high school and university-level courses in civics, government, and history. The discussions and briefing materials cover policy proposals, historical context, and pro/con arguments concisely and accessibly for students in high school* and beyond.
Educators should assign the pre-deliberation survey, which includes the briefing videos and booklet, and post-deliberation survey to be completed as homework. The one-hour deliberation can be completed inside or outside of class.
For assistance integrating our deliberations into your classroom, reach out to us at contact@deliberations.us or (202) 455-6309.
*For privacy reasons, those under the age of 13 cannot participate.
2. Before the deliberation, you'll complete a survey, sharing some information about your demographics, politics, and views on the proposals (Why do we collect your data?)
3. At the end of the survey, you'll review our fact-based and balanced briefing materials, which have been approved by an expert, bipartisan advisory board.
4. When the deliberation is scheduled to begin, you'll log onto the platform where you'll be sorted into a small discussion group optimized for political and geographic diversity. The platform will then guide you and your fellow Americans through the deliberation.
5. After the deliberation, you'll complete the survey again, sharing what you think of the proposals after you've discussed them (Why do we collect your data?).