“The election made me think of two questions. One is since basically half the country voted one way, the other half voted the other way, in terms of overall popular vote not electoral college. So the first question that occurs to me is in such a polarizing election, are people on one side asking why people on the other side vote that way? Are they really genuinely curious about why you voted for Hillary Clinton, or curious about why people voted for Trump? 

The night of the election, we were watching on CNN and every hour on the hour, polls closing, there’s like the big flashing thing and results were coming in. I thought it’s almost like this was a game. Like we’re getting a score – like – an updates score. And it was almost like you were watching the game happen in real time, but the truth is you were seeing lagging indicators; people had voted long before the “score” came in.

And then I thought actually, it would be really interesting for students to explore this question: What point is a presidential election actually decided? Is it literally the moment the ballots are cast? Does it happen the week leading up to it? Is it something that is really between the two final candidates? Is it decided by the fact we have a two party system and that sort of artificially narrows? I think there are so many different ways to explore that question that may lead to, I like to think, a more fruitful election in 2020.”