<p>With Election Day looming, the presidential candidates are hitting the battleground states, trying to get enough electoral votes to win. The magic number is 270, but what happens if nobody hits that mark?</p>
<p><a href="ipl://20//WyIyMDQiXQ==">Dean Rodney Smolla</a> and <a href="ipl://20//WyI4MCJd">Professor Alan E. Garfield</a>, both noted Constitutional law experts, teamed up with officials from the Widener University main campus to create a short, informative <a href="https://youtu.be/HEopglRK4Mw">video about the Electoral College</a>. Smolla, Garfield and Dr. Jim Vike, a university political science professor, discuss why and how the Electoral College was formed, how it works today, pros and cons of the system, and what would happen if it was abolished.</p>
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<p><iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/HEopglRK4Mw" width="560" height="315"></iframe></p>
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<p>The video is thought-provoking as it addresses how the Constitution sets up the Electoral College, but leaves it to the states to decide how to pick electors. Former Philadelphia Inquirer publisher Brian Tierney, an &lsquo;87 graduate of Delaware Law School, moderates the discussion. The program was produced by students in the university Communications Studies department, on an idea conceived by Delaware Law alumnus Eugene McGurk &rsquo;78. Both Tierney and McGurk are members of the university&rsquo;s Board of Trustees.</p>
<p>&ldquo;We encourage the public to share the video to promote bipartisan, intelligent conversation about the electoral process, particularly in a year that&rsquo;s been marked by a lot of divisive campaign rhetoric,&rdquo; Smolla said. &ldquo;The program is an ideal teaching aid for history, political science or pre-law classes where the Electoral College is discussed.&rdquo;</p>