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LO 3.1 10/20/2015

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AP AMERICAN GOVERNMENT

2 | 1

Unit Four

Part 1

The President and

the Bureaucracy

• Running for President

• Elections: The Rules of the Game

Chapter 9: Campaigns and Elections

Chapter 9 Learning Objectives

Running for President

• 4.1 Outline the stages in U.S. presidential elections and the differences in campaigning at each stage.

The Electoral College

• 4.2 Assess concerns regarding presidential elections and reforms that have been proposed.

LO 3.1 10/20/2015


Stage 1: Qualifications

Running for President4.1 Outline the stages in U.S. presidential elections and the differences in campaigning at each stage.

Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, District 27 Representative from Florida, was born in Cuba to Cuban parents. She

is interested in running for president in 2016. Is this constitutional?

Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, District 27 Representative from Florida, was born in Cuba to Cuban parents. She

is interested in running for president in 2016. Is this constitutional?

No, she must be a natural born Citizen, or a Citizen of the United States at the time of the Adoption of the Constitution, or a constitutional amendment must be passed.

A natural born citizen (born in the US or US territories, or born to US Citizens), must be thirty five years old, and a resident of the US for 14 years.

Article II, Section 1

LO 3.1 10/20/2015


Ted Cruz, Senator from Texas, was born in Canada to a Cuban father and an American mother. He

wants to be president in 2016. Is this constitutional?

Ted Cruz, Senator from Texas, was born in Canada to a Cuban father and an American mother. He

wants to be president in 2016. Is this constitutionally permissible?

Yes, he is a natural born Citizen, as he is the natural born child of an American citizen.

He is also 45 years old, and has been a resident of the US for over 30 years.

Is Barak Obama Constitutionally Qualified to be President?

LO 3.1 10/20/2015


Is Barak Obama Constitutionally Qualified

to be President?

The Facts of the Case:

• Barak Obama, Jr., was born August 4, 1961 in Honolulu, Hawaii to Ann

Dunham from Witchita, KS, and Barack Obama, Sr. from Kigala, Kenya.

• Ann Dunham and Barak Obama, Sr., were divorced in 1964.

• Ann remarried Lolo Soetaro, an Indonesian citizen, in 1967 and moved with Barak, Jr., to Jakarta, Indonesia.

• Obama returned to the US in 1971; his mother passed away from

cancer in 1977.

• Obama graduated from Punahou Prep School in 1979, and Columbia

University in 1983.

• Obama worked for the Developing Communities Project in Chicago, Illinois, from 1983 until 1988.

• Obama graduated from Harvard Law school in 1991, and taught

Constitutional Law at the University of Chicago from 1991 to 1996.

• Obama served in the Illinois State Senate from 1996 to 2004.

• Obama served in the US Senate from 2004 until 2008.

Is Barak Obama Constitutionally Qualified to

be President?

Berg v. ObamaU.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, Case No. 09-5362

• Natural Born citizen

• Yes, Obama was born to a US citizen on US soil.

• 35 years old

• He was 47 at the time of his inauguration

• Resident for 14 years

• He has been a resident on US soil since 1971; 37 consecutive years

Are those the only qualifications?

� Can George Bush, Sr. run again?

� Can George W. Bush run again?

� Can Bill Clinton run again?

� Can Jimmy Carter run again?

LO 3.1 10/20/2015


22nd Amendment, 1951

Section 1. No person shall be elected to the office of the President more than twice,

and no person who has acted as President for more than two years of a term to which some other person was elected President shall be elected to the office of the President more than once.

Stage 2: Nomination

� complex maze of presidential primaries and caucuses that constitutes the delegate selection system

Running for President4.1 Outline the stages in U.S. presidential elections and the differences in campaigning at each stage.

LO 3.1 10/20/2015


Which of the following statements is correct?

A. Voters in primary elections are just like voters in the general election.

B. Voters in primary elections are more partisan than voters in the general election.

C. Voters in primary elections are usually non-partisan.

D. Voters in primary elections are less partisan than voters in the general election.

LO 9.3

Back to Learning Objectives

Which of the following statements is correct

A. Voters in primary elections are just like voters in the general election.

B. Voters in primary elections are more partisan than voters in the general election.

C. Voters in primary elections are usually non-partisan.

D. Voters in primary elections are less partisan than voters in the general election.

LO 9.3

Back to Learning Objectives

Wouldn’t this mean that candidates chosen by the party in primary/caucuses would be extremists?

BUT WAIT!

*only in the Democratic party

*

LO 3.1 10/20/2015


Stage 2: The National Party Convention• Acceptance speeches • The Party Platform

• The Vice Presidential Nominee

Running for PresidentLO 9.3

Running for President

Stage 3: The General Election

• Personal Campaigning

• Presidential Debates

• Media: Coverage and Advertising

The Electoral College4.2 Assess concerns regarding presidential

elections and reforms that have been proposed.

� National popular vote is not the basis for electing President.

� Ballots list Presidential candidates, but voters choose Electors.

� Electors are selected under state rules

� Electors cast state votes for President in Washington DC in December.

LO 3.1 10/20/2015


Article I, Section 1:

Each state gets number of electors equal to representation in congress

The Electoral College

� Equal to the total membership of both Houses of Congress

• 435 Representatives and 100 Senators plus the three electors allocated to Washington, D.C., 538 electors.

� Almost all states use a winner-take-all system

� A faithless elector is one who casts an electoral vote for someone other than whom they have pledged to elect.

There are laws to punish faithless electors in 24 states

Bill Nelson is a US Senator from Florida.

Can he be an elector? Why or why not?

LO 3.1 10/20/2015


Bill Nelson is a US Senator from Florida.

Can he be an elector? Why or why not?

No. No Senator or Representative, or Person holding an Office in the United

States government shall be appointed

an Elector.

Under the original wording of the

constitution, how would the president and vice president be chosen?

Under the original wording of the

constitution, how would the president and vice president be chosen?

The Person having the majority of Electoral Votes is President, the person with the second most votes is vice-president.

The Electoral College ultimately worked differently than expected, because the Founders did not anticipate the role of political parties and the

concept of running on a ticket . . .

LO 3.1 10/20/2015


Election of 1804

Thomas JeffersonElectoral Votes 73

John AdamsElectoral Votes 65

Aaron BurrElectoral Votes 73


BUT . . .

What would happen in the case of a tie in

the electoral college?

LO 3.1 10/20/2015


What would happen in the case where no

one has a majority in the electoral college?

• The House chooses the President from the top 5 candidates with each State having one Vote.

• A quorum for this purpose is two thirds of the States.

• A Majority of all the States is necessary to select the President.

• The Senate chooses the Vice President in the same manner.

Aaron BurrElectoral Votes 73


“I would rather have a man with the wrong principles than a man with no principles at

all” – Alexander Hamilton

12th Amendment, 1804

Section 3. The Electors shall meet . . . and vote by ballot for President and Vice-President;

they shall name in their ballots the person voted for as President, and in distinct ballots the person voted for as Vice-President,

they shall make distinct lists of all persons voted for as President, and all persons voted for as Vice-President and of the number of votes for each

The person having the greatest Number of votes for President, shall be the President.

The person having the greatest number of votes as Vice-President, shall be the Vice-President.

LO 3.1 10/20/2015


� Burr later killed Hamilton in a duel

� Burr fled west, where he proclaimed himself

‘King of Louisiana’

� Burr was tried for treason, but was

acquitted for lack of witnesses

FUN TRIVIA

Election of 1824

John Quincy AdamsFederalist

Massachusetts31%

Electoral Votes 84

13 states in House

Andrew JacksonDemocrat

Tennessee41%

Electoral Votes 99

7 states in House

William H. CrawfordWhig

Georgia12%

Electoral Votes 41

4 states in House

Henry ClayDemocrat

Kentucky16%

Electoral Votes 37

0 states in House

131 electoral votes needed to win

Elections where the popular vote

winner lost the electoral college

vote:

� 1824

John Quincy Adams (31%) vs Andrew Jackson (41%)

� 1876

Rutherford Hayes (47%) vs Samuel Tilden (51%)

� 1888

Benjamin Harrison (47%) vs Grover Cleveland (48%)

� 2000

George W. Bush (47%) vs Al Gore (49%)

LO 3.1 10/20/2015


14 | 37

Roosevelt 523, Landon 8

63% 37%

14 | 38

Johnson 486, Goldwater 5262% 38%

Nixon 520, McGovern 17

14 | 39

61% 38%

LO 3.1 10/20/2015


Reagan 525, Mondale 13

14 | 40

59% 41%

Obama 332, Romney 20651% 48%

http://www.neuronicgames.com/votestar/

LO 3.1 10/20/2015




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