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Topics on the Page
The Electoral College
- Differentiated Learning Resources
2016 Presidential Election
Ideas for Voting Reform
- Early Voting
- National Popular Vote
- Proportional Allocation of Electoral Votes
- Instant Runoff/Ranked Choice Voting
Voting and Fair Elections
The Electoral College
The United States uses an indirect method of electing the President centered around the Electoral College.
See The Electoral College from Exploring Constitutional Conflicts of arguments for and against this feature of the American system
- Each state is given electoral votes equal to the number of representatives they have in the House of Representatives (as determined by the Census) plus two more for each of the state's two Senators.
- Small states have influence (for example Montana and Wyoming with 3 electoral votes as of 2008) while large states have a greater voice (California has 55 electoral votes, Texas 34, and New York 31).
- Electoral votes are distributed on a winner take all basis. A candidate with the most votes in a state (although not necessarily a majority) gets that state's electoral votes.
- Maine and Nebraska have a slight variation where they assign some electoral votes to the statewide winner and some to each Congressional district winner.
- Critics of the electoral college system contend that it produces apathy among voters since in contemporary American politics many states are solidly for the Democratic or Republican Party.
- Click here to watch a crash course on the Electoral College.
Faithless Electors are members of the Electoral College who do not vote for their party's designated candidate
Should Puerto Rico or Washington, D.C. Be the 51st State?
Can the Democrats Win the Senate by Adding Seats? It's Been Done Before, FiveThirtyEight (June 5, 2019)
Puerto Rico Admission Act of 2018
Pedro Albrizu Campos Leads the Puerto Rican Independence Movement
The Dream of Puerto Rican Independence, and the Story of Heriberto Marin, The New Yorker (December 27, 2017)
Examples of Online Resources and How They Differentiate Learning for Students (submitted by Molly Follette, April 2019)
https://www.npr.org/2019/03/21/705395107/momentum-builds-to-eliminate-the-electoral-college
This resource is a podcast that discusses why Democratic candidates want to end the Electoral College and how many states plan to work around it.
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2016/12/19/us/elections/electoral-college-results.html
This resource features charts and graphs showing the votes from electors and how seven electors, the most ever, voted for someone other than their party’s nominee.
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2016/12/18/us/elections/donald-trump-electoral-college-popular-vote.html
This resource features charts and graphs showing the difference between Trump’s electoral and popular vote and then compares his percent of electoral college won with presidents of the past.
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/upshot/election-2016-voting-precinct-maps.html
This resource is an extremely detailed interactive map of the 2016 election. You can specifically search states, cities and towns or zipcodes
https://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/09/us/politics/how-does-the-electoral-college-work.html
This is a resource that defines what an Electoral College is and how it functioned in both the 2016 election of Donald Trump and the 2008 election of Obama. This resource also explains the difference between the popular and electoral vote.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-15764542
This resource gives a brief history of how the Electoral College came to be. This resource also compares and contrasts the advantages and disadvantages of the Electoral College.
https://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/08/learning/lesson-plans/the-final-vote-for-president-learning-about-the-electoral-college.html
This resource features a funny but informative video that explains what the Electoral College is and why so many people think it is outdated. This resource also offers suggestions for small- group activities, discussion questions and resources for students to answer the question of whether it should be retained or abolished.
http://resourcesforhistoryteachers.pbworks.com/w/page/125522492/The%20Electoral%20College%2C%20Ranked%20Choice%20Voting%20and%20More%20Ideas%20for%20Election%20Reform
This resource features numerous interactive sources for teachers to explore in order to best guide class discussion concerning voting reform, fair elections, and proportional allocation of electoral votes.
This resource is a video recording of Woody Guthrie's This Land is Your Land, the lyrics are notable when thinking critically about the electoral college.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wxiMrvDbq3s
2016 Presidential Election
The Electoral College is Hated by Many, So Wh Does It Endure? The New York Times, November 10, 2016
Clinton's Substantial Popular Vote Win, The New York Times, November 11, 2016
- Hillary Clinton will have a larger popular vote margin than Al Gore (2000), Richard Nixon (1968) or John F. Kennedy (1960)
Four Other Presidential Races Where Candidates Won the Popular Vote and Lost the Election
- Al Gore (2000)
- Grover Cleveland (1888)
- Samuel Tilden (1876)
- Andrew Jackson (1824)
Ideas for Reform
Early Voting
Voting Early and in Droves, 22 Million Ballots are Already In, The New York Times (October 31, 2016).
- This article includes early voting state maps and trends during the 2016 Presidential election.
National Popular Vote
FairVote Support National Popular Vote
The Movement to Skip the Electoral College is About to Pass a Major Milestone
Proportional Allocation of Electoral Votes
Proportional Allocation of Electoral Votes is one proposal for change.
- Instead of a winner take all system, electoral votes would be divided according to percentage of votes that each candidate received in a state.
- In 2000, for example, George W. Bush won Florida by 534 votes over Al Gore and received the state's 25 electoral votes. If the electoral votes were distributed proportionally, Bush would have received 13 and Gore 12, giving the election to Gore.
Click here to see how proportional allocation of electoral votes would affect the 2012 election, state by state
Instant Runoff/Ranked-Choice Voting (RCV)
Instant Runoff Voting is a widely discussed idea for reforming American elections.
RCV Mock Election Vote Tally, from Vote Different Santa Fe
Instant Run Voting: An Interactive Animation
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Rates of voting in the 2008 U.S. Presidential Election by income, Rcragun |
Voting and Fair Elections
The following organizations are concerned with ensuring fair elections, promoting electoral reform, and registering new voters.
- The Center for Voting and Democracy - The Center is a non-profit organization dedicated to research and action on voting issues. They are "dedicated to fair elections where every vote counts and all voters are represented." Election reform is a subject of specific interest to the Center.
- Rock the Vote - This youth-oriented organization encourages informed voting and political activism among citizens and potential voters between the ages of 18 and 30. Rock the Vote's informational campaigns combine the efforts of popular music and movie stars with those of politicians in order to inform and entertain about political issues.
- Federal Election Commission - Created by Congress in 1975, the Federal Election Commission (FEC) administers and enforces the Federal Election Campaign Act (FECA), which is the statute that governs the financing of federal elections. The FEC is an independent regulatory agency, which discloses campaign finance information, enforces limits and prohibitions on contributions, and oversees the public funding of Presidential elections.
Click here to watch a commercial of Rock the Vote.
Michelle Obama Co-Founded the Voter Participation Organization When We All Vote in 2018
Vote by Mail
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