John Oliver Uses French Election to Point Out How Dumb Our Electoral College Is (Video)

Overseas system is a bit more straightforward than stateside one

The upcoming French election has massive implications for all of Europe — but don’t take our word for it, listen to real-life Brit John Oliver.

But first, let’s give readers a bit of background on how it works over there.

The contest for France’s next leader takes place in two parts: The first sees all candidates facing off for votes; assuming no one gets more than 50 percent of those ballots cast, the top two candidates then move on to the final round a few weeks later.

“What a ridiculous system,” Oliver said on last night’s “Last Week Tonight.” “Where are the 51 individual contests that allot points based on outdated demographic data that could result in the decisive loser of the popular vote count somehow losing — that’s just stupid!”

In case you didn’t get the joke, that’s how it works stateside — and that’s how we ended up with President Donald Trump.

“Go easy on France, they’re still working out the kinks in their democracy,” Oliver continued his sarcasm.

At the end of his Sunday segment, Oliver made an appeal to the French to not elect candidate Marine Le Pen, whom he sees as quite Trump-like: “Britain and American f—ed up,” he said. “Don’t f— up, too.”

Watch the video above.

Comments