It should be chronological: US Civil War: 1861-1865, Reconstruction: 1865-1877, Progressive Era: 1890-1920s
Since the electoral college is a college of politicians whose job it is to know everyone and everything, we give them our votes and they vote for who should be the president. Therefore, you don't have to know who the president is, but if you give your vote to the elector then they will give it to who they know is about the ideas that you voted for. Nowadays it is much more complicated due to the scale of it all.
