Richard Stewart, B.A. Allegheny College,  M.A. Wesleyan University and a teacher of U.S. and World History at Choate Rosemary Hall, presents this course on the fundamentals of the Electoral College, the institution that has recently had such an outsized influence on presidential election outcomes. Since it is the electoral count that actually determines the winner of the presidency, the U.S. has had several elections (and two of the last five) in which the candidate who won the popular vote did not win the electoral vote, thus losing the presidency. How can the winner of the popular vote lose the election? What IS the Electoral College? Why did the Framers design the Electoral College as they did? Can it be changed? Should it be changed?