Bell Ringer

1. What is “soft money”?

2. What did 2002 BCRA (McCain-Feingold) try to do?

ElectionsElectoral College & Election Process

Today we will …ObjectivesDefine Electoral

College and explain how it works in a winner-take-all system.

Differentiate between electoral votes and popular vote.

Evaluate the 2000 Bush/Gore election that did not go according to the ideal process.

1. Warm up – simulation and cartoon

2. Slide/notes

3. Ted Ed video

4. Explore 2000 Bush/Gore election

5. Closure

HW: Study Guide for Test on Thursday

Agenda

Which Do You Prefer?

OR

Look under your seat and remove the post-it.

You should see a state and # of electoral votes.

You now have the # of votes on your post-it.

Which Do You Prefer?

OR

What Just Happened?Are the results different? Why or why not?Is this fair?Who had the advantage in the

second election?

ElectorsYou were just an “elector” in the

Pizza/Chinese food election.

An elector represents the majority of votes in his/her state.

A state would choose either PIZZA or CHINESE FOOD and then that choice receives ALL of the electoral votes.

Pair/Share/Discuss Study the cartoon and answer the

questions with a partner.

WHY IS THERE AN ELECTORAL COLLEGE?

There were 4 main reasons why the Framers of the Constitution adopted the Electoral College.

1. Representation: How to balance power between large and small states?

Result: Electoral votes are determined by population, just like Congress.

# of Representatives + # of Senators = # of Electoral Votes

So …If Virginia has 11

Representatives, how many electoral votes are there?

If California has 53 Representatives, how many electoral votes are there?

If Alaska has 1 Representative, how many electoral votes are there?

Electoral College – WHY?

2. Fear: People weren’t educated enough to make a good decision.

Result: Electors who were educated about the process would wait until AFTER the general election and make the official vote.

Electoral College – WHY?

3. Knowledge: Voters didn’t know about candidates from other states.

Result: Using electors would keep people from just voting on candidates from their state. (If that happened no candidate would get a national majority!)

TodayVoting tells the elector which

candidate the voter wants the elector to vote for in the Electoral College.

Formula for an Ideal President

Educated Person

+ Political Knowledge

Popular Vote

(majority)

Electoral Vote

(majority)

+ +

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W9H3gvnN468

Electoral College Map What is the

minimum number of states that a candidate needs to win in order to win the election?

  What are those

states?

  Now add the state

where you were born into your calculation. How do the new electors change the total?

How the Electoral College WorksStep 1: Registered voters cast

their votes in the general election.

Step 2: Votes are counted in each state. The candidate with the majority of votes wins ALL of that states electoral votes. ◦There are 538 possible electoral

votes.

How the Electoral College WorksStep 3: A candidate must win a majority of electoral votes to win. That means that the candidate must win 270 electoral votes to win the election.

What If…

What if there is a tie?The election is decided by the

U.S. House of Representatives. Each state has ONE vote.

What If …A candidate wins the popular vote but loses the electoral vote, he/she does NOT become President

A candidate loses the popular vote but wins the electoral vote, he/she becomes President

How the Electoral College WorksStep 4: The candidate that

receives the majority of electoral votes nationally becomes the next President of the United States.

As few as 11 states can mean victory in the Electoral College.

What is meant by the term popular vote?

How many electoral votes are there in a presidential election? How many do you have to get to win a majority?

If a candidate wins 80% of the popular vote in a state, how many electoral votes will he/she receive?

What happens if no candidate wins a majority of electoral votes?

An Election That Broke the Rules

Study the information about the 2000 election between George Bush and Al Gore.

Answer the questions with your partner.

YouTube - Morning after 2000 election

ClosureOpponents to the electoral college system highlight the following issues:

◦ A candidate can win the presidency without winning the popular vote, as happened in 2000.

◦ Electors do not have to vote in accord with popular vote.

◦ If an electoral minority is not achieved, the House of Representatives could end up choosing he president.

In your opinion, are these issues reason enough to change the electoral college system? Why or why not? Explain your answer in a short paragraph.