Bell Ringer 1. What is “soft money”? 2. What did 2002 BCRA (McCain- Feingold) try to do?

Elections Electoral College & Election Process

Today we will … Objectives Define 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?

Electors You 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: 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!)

Today Voting 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) gvnN gvnN468

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 Works Step 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 Works Step 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 Works Step 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 YouTube - Morning after 2000 election

Closure Opponents to the electoral college system highlight the following issues: ◦ A candidate can win the presidency without winning the popular vote, as happened in ◦ 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.