Hey all.  It's me again, Laydia the intern here at The National Writing Project with Christina.  With all the fuss over whose going to lead this country for the next four years, a lot of people realized (myself included) that they didn't know as much as they thought about the whole election process.  If you fall into that category you'll love the sites below. My favorite is Bens Guide to U.S. Government for kids.  It's really cute and the information is tailored to different grade levels.  I've even included a few other sites that are helpful in understanding what happens in the government after the president is elected.  Hope you like them.  Enjoy!

The most confusing part of the whole process is the electoral college.  Here are some sites that should help you through the whole ordeal.

EC The US Electoral College Webzine gives tons of info on the electoral college and the process of electing the      president.  Although it is very biased (they refer to themselves as a fanzine) it provides tons of info.  It is supported by Avagara (no idea who they are).

http://www.fwkc.com/ is an on-line encyclopedia.  I found this page on the electoral college and it explains what the electoral college is, how it works and also gives a brief history of the process.

http://www.grundy-center.k12.ia.us/ssi/College.html This site is for teachers interested is teaching a lesson on the electoral college.  It is part of a Ring of Academia on Yahoo.  It is owned by Keith Hall, a member of the Yahoo community.

Here's a list of references about the electoral college.

Click on the picture above to go to a page explains how the electoral college works and its history.  It also gives the distribution of votes to the different states.  The main site for this page is the Federal Election Commission which also has tons of info on the US electoral system.

Link-to-Learn is a catalyst for the effective use of information technology to expand and enhance the use of technology in the classroom.   This page is a lesson plan for high school kids and is focused on the electoral college.

Alabama live is a news site that gives information on both local and National news.  This article describes how the electoral college works.

About.com is always a good source for info.  Check out this site on the Electoral College and look up other info on the US Government.

 Click here for a page on the National Archives and Records Administration’s site.  It gives extensive information on Presidential elections both past and present.

USElectionatlas.org is an atlas of past presidential elections.  It has all the info you need to know on the whole process.

http://www.nased.org/statelinks.htm This site was put together by the NASED (National Association of State Election Directors).  It is a list of the sites for the Election Offices for each US state.  NASED is a non-profit, non-partisan, private membership association designed primarily to provide a forum for state election officials to share information about election administration.

http://www.the-election.com/index.shtml This site gives you up-to- date info on elections to the presidency, the senate, and congress.  It’s not clear who the site is run by but it is informative just the same.  

http://www.sd81.k12.wa.us/lewis_clark/departments/socialstudies/usgovt.htm  This page appears to be written by teachers for the students attending Lewis and Clark High School.  It has lots of resources on American Government and also other Social Studies topics sorted by grade level.  

http://www.infoctr.edu/fwl/ The Federal Web Locator is a service provided by the Center for Information Law and Policy and is intended to be the one stop shopping point for federal government information on the World Wide Web.    

http://www.nara.gov/exhall/charters/declaration/decmain.html  This page offers resources on the Declaration of Independence and offers a full transcription.    

http://constitution.by.net/ This site has a full text version of the Constitution and all of its amendments.  It also provides links to other important documents in the history of the United States.

http://earlyamerica.com/earlyamerica/freedom/index.html This site has full text versions of the Declaration of the United States, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights.  It’s part of earlyamerica.com which offers a wealth of resources on the development of the worlds greatest country.  Be forewarned, this is a commercial site and the ads can seem a bit overwhelming.     

http://chesterfield.k12.va.us/~jpsmith/Civics/Quizzes/quizzesh.htm This is a page from a boys site by the name of Hans Schultz.  He is trying to become a citizen of the US.  You can benefit from his lessons by starting with the basics of American Government.  Test your wits on American Government with these basic quizzes. Also Check out the home page and participate in his learning process.

  http://lcweb2.loc.gov/const/fed/fedpapers.html This site has a full text version of the Federalist Papers.

http://www.nara.gov/nara/president/address.html This is a site that gives information on the presidential libraries around the US.  This is where the Presidential Papers of all presidents after Hebert Hoover are stored.  

http://www.nara.gov/exhall/treasuresofcongress/index.html This site is a virtual tour of the history of congress. 

http://bensguide.gpo.gov/9-12/election/index.html This is a comprehensive site for children on the election process. http://www.americanpresidents.org/ This is a database of all the American Presidents.  It provides Information on the lives of all the presidents.

http://www.nara.gov/fedreg/elctcoll/ This is a page on the National Archives and Records Administration’s site.  It gives extensive information on Presidential elections both past and present.