It's TED Talks Daily. I'm Elise Hugh. Here's a provocative thought, a coup in America.

In today's talk, the TV host and author Van Jones describes how to stop one. In the U.S., we have a presidential election underway, and Jones is worried about what happens after the ballots are counted.

He walks us through unsettling scenarios we're thinking about and what we can do about it.

Okay, as an attorney, as a political commentator, and frankly, as a former White House official,

I used to think I knew a lot about

how America picks a president. I was wrong. I did not know. And this year, I've been doing

some research into some of the fine print and all the different things in our Constitution

that we never talk about. And I've discovered some legal loopholes that shocked me,

I guarantee it will shock you, and could determine the way that the presidential election in 2020

turns out. For instance, did you know that under our Constitution a presidential candidate could

actually lose the popular vote.

They ought to get a majority in the electoral college, refuse to concede, manipulate hidden

mechanisms in our government, and still get sworn in as the president of the United States

of America.

That's a true fact.

I know it sounds like some crazy House of Cards episode,

and I wish it was because then we could just change the channel, but I just described to you

a real world, real life possibility that could occur this year, the year I'm talking, in 2020,

or in some other year if we don't fix some of these glitches in our system.

So if you think, though, that the American people's choice in a U.S. presidential election

should actually be sworn in to become president of the United States,

please pay attention to this talk.

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