The Digital Press at the University of North Dakota is excited to announce a Facebook Live event featuring Eric Burin of the University of North Dakota’s Department of History where he’ll  discuss his recent edited book Picking the President: Understand the Electoral College at 1 pm (CST) on February 21st. It’s the day after Presidents’ Day!

We’re teaming up with the North Dakota Humanities Council to make this happen. This is a perfect match, because the North Dakota Humanities Council “was established to provide people opportunities to engage with and debate powerful ideas, because democracy cannot exist without thoughtful and informed citizens dedicated to freedom and justice.”

Here’s our pitch:

As the attention of America and the World has become increasingly glued to the daily moves (and tweets) of the new president, Dr. Burin will discuss the history of the Electoral College and the contemporary situation that led to Donald Trump’s surprising victory in November. In the book, over dozen collaborators shared their perspectives on the Electoral College. In this Facebook Live event, Dr. Burin will be happy to answer questions about the history of the Electoral College and to discuss how challengers and supporters of this peculiar way of electing the president has historically defied partisan politics and flared up at key times in the history of U.S.

Here’s how you participate:

First, go and download Picking the President for free or if you really want it a paper copy, ordering on via Amazon.

Then, jump onto the  Picking the President’s Facebook page starting a 1 pm (CST) February 21st. To ask Dr. Burin questions, use the hashtag #PickingthePres on Twitter or Facebook or comment here on this blog post. He’ll be broadcasting for about an hour.

Here’s a photo of him with Abe Lincoln.