Craftory: Ballot Box

[Music] welcome to craftery by prageru kids crafts history and your questions i'm jill and today we're making our very own ballot box to learn about america's voting system and our electoral college here's what you'll need a shoe box red white and blue construction paper scissors a glue stick or tape and markers the united states is a representative democracy or a republic which means that we the people elect our representatives for our cities our states and our country as american citizens we have the right and responsibility to vote for our leaders it's a special privilege that millions of people around the world continue to fight for today oh we've got a question what is the electoral college how do you become a student there i was hoping you would ask that the electoral college is not a school but is a group of people who elect the president and the vice president of the united states every four years yes you heard that right it seems confusing but it's really unique i'll explain when americans vote for president and vice president we are actually voting for someone called an elector to represent us in what's called the electoral college again it's not a school this elector usually casts his or her vote for the candidate who wins in their state i'll talk more about this in a bit but in the meantime let's start making our own ballot box what you're gonna do is take the top of your shoe box and cut a rectangle out of the top ask a grown-up for help if you need it there we go just like that let me get back to explaining a little bit more about this electoral college our founding fathers wanted american citizens to be involved in choosing our president and vice president so they established a voting system but they also feared that candidates from larger states with more people in those states to vote for them would always have an unfair advantage because they could always outvote the smaller states so the idea of an electoral college was established in article 2 section 1 of our u.s constitution there are all sorts of details and rules but here's the main idea for how it works during a presidential election every state holds its own election for president and vice president the candidates that win the popular vote in each state the most votes from the people in that state usually win all of the electors from that state meaning if a majority of people in california vote for one presidential candidate then all of california's electoral votes are given to that candidate when it's time to figure out the winner there are some exceptions but you can learn about all of those later okay what do you say we make this ballot box look pretty let's cover it up with our red white and blue paper you can use any kind but you know me i like red white and blue there we go all four sides covered kind of fun huh so how many electors does each state get well it depends on how many people live in that state states have as many electors as number of representatives and senators that they have in the u.s congress for example i'm from california right now california is allowed 53 representatives and two senators in congress and that's based on how many people live here so california is allowed a total of 55 members in the electoral college fun fact the numbers of electors from each state can change every few years if a lot of people move out of one state and into another state in total there are 538 members of the electoral college the presidential and vice presidential candidates who win a majority of votes from these state electors 270 win the election here's a challenge for you find out how many electoral college members that your state has and write it on the top of your box i'm gonna use california vote 53 representatives two senators 55 electors let's make the top of this box pretty time to decorate [Music] here we go it is our responsibility and our right to vote easy right your very own ballot box now every time there's a family decision to be made you can vote on it what's for dinner vote who's walking the dog today vote our electoral college is unique when compared to other presidential elections around the world and has helped provide fairness to the united states presidential election system we hope you had fun if you've got ideas or questions for our next craftery send them our way keep crafting keep learning and keep celebrating land of the free and home of the brain thanks for voting bye guys [Music] thank you for watching this video to keep prageru videos free please consider making a tax deductible donation