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Can a president cancel an election? WIRED asks a historian

Lindsay Chervinsky explains the limits of presidential power, the origins of Election Tuesday and what happens without an Electoral College majority.

Channel: WIRED Story of Trari Newsroom

Why this story? The channel's weekly summary: what went up this week, what is drawing views now, and where the channel stands among similar channels.

Presidential Historian Answers US Election QuestionsPresidential Historian Answers US Election Questions

Things we can learn from the video

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  1. 1:00The Electoral College is established in the Constitution, making an amendment necessary to change it.
  2. 3:41A president cannot cancel or postpone an election; Chervinsky points to elections held during the Civil War.
  3. 4:05Election Tuesday's origins lie in an 1845 law shaped around agricultural schedules.
  4. 11:24Midterms often penalize the sitting president's party.
  5. 14:19Without an Electoral College majority, the presidential choice moves to a contingent election in the House.

Elections continued during the Civil War. That's Lindsay Chervinsky's historical reference point when WIRED asks whether a president can postpone or cancel one: no, she explains, the decision isn't the president's to make.

"Presidential Historian Answers US Election Questions" is the most-watched of WIRED's four new uploads, approaching half a million views. Chervinsky, executive director of the George Washington Presidential Library, moves between constitutional mechanics and the practical peculiarities of voting. Tuesday's place on the calendar gets an explanation rooted in agricultural schedules; the Electoral College gets a reminder that changing the Constitution is difficult.

The discussion also looks beyond presidential contests. Chervinsky explains why midterms often punish the sitting president's party and emphasizes the importance of local, state and down-ballot races. Viewers are discussing those less-attended elections and asking about time off to vote, extending the video's focus on how participation actually works.

History supplied another substantial new audience through "Historian Fact Checks Gilded Age Slop," featuring Carl Raymond examining AI-generated historical material. Meanwhile, Abbott Elementary supplied the entertainment detour, with William Stanford Davis's Mr. Johnson getting a separate upload from the cast's question-answering session.

WIRED added about 8.2 million views over the week, almost the same as BBC Earth. Subscribers held steady, while its current daily viewing is below its usual level. The election Q&A has the channel's strongest daily momentum, followed by the older Abbott Elementary cast interview and Jared Pink's "Mechanic Answers Car Questions," where the questions run from spotting a lemon to accidentally filling a gas car with diesel.

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Where next?

More from WIREDThis week on the channel +8.6M views this weekHistory slop gets a historian's attention on WIREDLindsay Chervinsky's fact check joins Bollywood questions and a seven-person Abbott Elementary cast interview.Channel: WIRED · Story of October 15, 2026 Also in Documentaries and journalismVideo taking off 17x its usual first dayIs Haiti safe enough to go back to? FRONTLINE goes to lookSebastian Walker's documentary follows the end of Temporary Protected Status from deportation flights in Cap-Haïtien to ankle monitors in Springfield, Ohio.Channel: FRONTLINE PBS | Official · Story of October 22, 2026 A different discovery todayVideo taking off 57x its usual first dayNew Mexico's attorney general wants Epstein's estate in survivors' handsRaúl Torrez announces a federal civil suit against the estate's co-executors, whom C-SPAN's title identifies as Epstein's attorney and accountant.Channel: C-SPAN · Story of October 22, 2026

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The videos drawing views on WIRED right now

Historian Fact Checks Gilded Age Slop301,653 views · 2026-10-16 Mr. Johnson: Abbott Elementary's Many-Faced God34,411 views · 2026-10-15 Skipping The Gym To Exercise My Rights 💅27,423 views · 2026-10-20 ‘Abbott Elementary’ Cast Answer The 50 Most Searched Questions567,905 views Mechanic Answers Car Questions1,323,484 views
The facts
Channel
WIRED
Subscribers
13,000,000
Channel views, last 7 days
8,218,519
Videos published this week
4
Video published
October 20, 2026
Video views so far
471,986
Views on its first day
381,638

The numbers

Here's how WIRED's week looks across views, subscribers and its busiest uploads.

views gained this week: this channel and similar channels
National Geographic
15,547,688
BBC Earth
8,223,699
WIRED
8,218,519
LADbible Stories
5,548,989
Nat Geo Animals
4,478,676
VICE
2,888,216
FRONTLINE PBS | Official
2,362,914
Real Stories
2,322,679
truly
0
subscribers
13,000,000
no significant change in the last 7 days
total views
4,969,235,360
views per day
790,931
typical day: 1,257,669
first-day views of each video posted this week
Presidential Historian Answers US Elect…
381,638
Historian Fact Checks Gilded Age Slop
160,961
Mr. Johnson: Abbott Elementary's Many-F…
20,822
Skipping The Gym To Exercise My Rights …
24,884
subscribers: this channel and similar channels
National Geographic
26,500,000
VICE
19,200,000
BBC Earth
14,600,000
WIRED
13,000,000
truly
10,500,000
Real Stories
6,770,000
Nat Geo Animals
6,520,000
FRONTLINE PBS | Official
4,750,000
LADbible Stories
4,110,000
As of October 22, 2026 · Data source: Trari Social News, Trari Traffic Trends and Ranking Platform, Google YouTube
Subscriber, view, like and comment counts are YouTube's. Rates, usual days, rankings, comparisons and categories are Trari's own calculations.
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