1. THE BASICS OF VOTING Requirements: –Must be a US Citizen –18 years or older –Must be a resident of the state In most states prison inmates and the mentally incomplete cannot vote.

2. THE BASICS OF VOTING You must register to vote –The individual state makes laws on voter registration. Two types of elections: Primaries & General Election Day –Federal: Congress set it as the Tuesday after the first Monday in November as the federal congressional/presidential election. –States: Most use that day as well –Local: Any time, but mostly in the spring

3. VOTING METHODS Paper Ballots Optical Scan Ballots Punch Card Lever Machine Electronic Ballots

4. BEING AN INFORMED VOTER Voter should: –Find out all they can about candidates Qualification & Platforms Ballot Measures: –Also called Initiatives, Referendums, & Recalls (state and local only) –The process by which a law is proposed/passed by a state legislature is referred to the voters to approve or reject.

5. MESSAGES FROM THE CANDIDATES Candidates need to get voter’s support to win an election. Communication: –Posters, bumper stickers, leaflets –Personal appearances –Direct mail –The internet/ Social Media –Advertisement

6. POLITICAL ACTION COMMITTEES (PACS) Interest groups reach out to voters as well. They want to help candidates whose platform agree with their views. PACs created by the largest interest groups to carry out these election activities Super PACs- a type of independent PACs which may raise unlimited sums of money from corporations, unions, and individuals but is not permitted to contribute to or coordinate directly with parties or candidates.

7. RECOGNIZING PROPAGANDA

8. WHO WINS AN ELECTION When citizens vote for president, they do not directly elect them into office. Electoral College: –Each state gets the same number of electors as they have in congress (House of Representatives & Senate) –Total for all states: 538 –Each elector gets one vote –Before the election, each political party draws a list of electors from each state. –On election day, when a candidate wins a “state” his or her party electors are selected to vote in the electoral college. –In December, the electoral college meets and vote –A candidate must have 270 or more to be president