INTRODUCTION
Students will understand that presidential elections are decided by
the electoral college and not popular votes.
SUGGESTED TIME ALLOWANCE
50 minutes
OBJECTIVESStudents will:
understand that elections are decided by the electoral college.
see that each state has a number of electors, and understand how
this number is determined.
examine election trends.
PROCEDURES
- Ask if the students have heard of the electoral college. If so,
can anyone explain it? (The electoral college is technically
responsible for electing the president.) Explain that each state has a
particular number of electors, their numbers determined by how many
senators and representatives a state has. On election day, as
presidential candidates "win" a particular state by accumulating the
most votes, they are awarded the number of delegates from that state.
The candidate with the highest number of electoral votes wins the
election. In December, the electors hold their own election to vote
formally for President. The winning candidate will have at least half
the electoral votes – or 270 delegates. (For a more thorough
explanation of the electoral college, see
http://www.fec.gov/pages/ecworks.htm.)
- Have pairs of students look at the List of States and Votes
on the National Archives and Records Administration site on the
electoral college's website:
http://www.archives.gov/federal_register/electoral_college/votes_2000.html.
Ask a student to name a state that is physically large, then note the
number of electoral votes. Try another state. By looking at California
and Montana, for example, students will see that the physical size of
a state does not correlate with its number of electoral votes. Why do
they think this is? (Answer: Votes correspond to population, not
size.)
- Distribute a U.S. map to each pair and have students use the
numbers from the National Archives website to fill in the number of
delegates in each state on their map, using pencil or black ink.
- Assign recent election years, starting with 1996 and moving back
in time, to the pairs and direct them to the Electoral Votes by
State section of the site. As a class, choose colors to represent
republicans, democrats, and third-party candidates. Then have the
students color in the states in pencil or crayon to show whether the
electoral votes went republican or democrat for their year.
- Hang the maps on the wall in chronological order. Identify and
discuss voting trends and shifts in those trends over time, including
regional differences. Has the South, for example, traditionally voted
with a certain party? What do the students think the current
presidential candidates might anticipate by way of votes? If they were
running for president, would they spend more time in states that had
traditionally voted for them or against them? Why?
ASSESSMENT Have student pairs trade maps to check each other's
work.
EXTENSION ACTIVITIES
Ask students to research the home states of candidates Al Gore and
George W. Bush. Which candidate starts off with the higher number of
electoral votes (assuming that they will win their home state)?
STANDARDS CORRELATIONStandards at McRel:
http://www.mcrel.org/standards-benchmarks/
Knows the location of places, geographic features, and patterns of
the environment
Understands economic, social, and cultural developments in the
contemporary United States
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Extension Activities
When using So You Want to Be President in your classroom:
l. Create a So You Want to Be President quiz show about presidents,
asking details of their lives that would identify them. Let students use "life
lines," such as "phone a friend," and so on.
2. Research a particular president, then keep a journal as if you're that
president; imagine a day or week of days in the president's life. Let some of
the recollections be historical and some be humorous.
3. Make a comment on a president by sketching a political cartoon, or
caricature, ŕ la David Small. (You might want to make a study of political
cartoonerie in the United States.)
4. Role-playing: Select a president that you want to represent, then
role-play that president in a confrontation with another president over some
historical issue.
Example: Dwight Eisenhower and George Washington over war as a way to
solve a problem. Use examples from "your" life to prove your point. (Other
possibilities: Teddy Roosevelt and Richard Nixon; William Clinton and Abraham
Lincoln, etc.)
5. Give students famous sayings such as, "Speak softly and carry a big stick"
and "Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your
country," etc., and let them identify the presidents who said them.
6. Create a map, showing where all the presidents lived; can you draw any
territorial conclusions?
7. Select a president and write an essay about which values you and this
president share.
8. Discuss with another student what characteristics you think a president
needs to become a great president. Which characteristics do presidents who
failed have in common? Then share with the greater group.
9. You are running for president: In three minutes give a speech telling your
"voting" audience what you want to do for your country if you are elected.
l0. Build a White House; include a floor plan, and consider which rooms you
need to carry on the duties of president. Designate their functions.
Extra: Plan an election campaign. Decide what your slogan will be,
what platform you will run on, and how you will reach your voting audience.
Letter Writing
