Using Primary Sources Electoral Maps The Electoral College Standard/Objective • Identify the basic feature of the political system in the United States. (NCSS) • Students will describe the role of the popular and electoral votes, and then they will participate in a simulated electoral vote. Materials Copy of facsimile Electoral Maps; Copies of the historical background information (page 60); Copies of student activity sheet, Winner of Electoral Vote Wins It All! (page 61); Copies of the Electoral College Reading Comprehension Questions (comp.pdf) and the Distribution of Electoral Votes (votes.pdf) both available on the CD; Copies of Electoral Maps (page 62); White index cards Discussion Questions • Some people say we should get rid of the electoral vote and only count the popular votes. What do you think? • Why do candidates spend more time in some states than others? • Does your state have enough electoral votes for candidates to visit often? Using the Primary Source Read and discuss as a class the historical background information (page 60) that focuses on the history of electoral voting in our country. Use the discussion questions above to get students talking and sharing. Then, have partners complete the Electoral College Reading Comprehension Questions (comp.pdf). Show students the large facsimile and discuss the use of colors on the map. Then, distribute copies of each of the maps from the document. (If possible, copy the large facsimile in color. If not, use Electoral Maps (page 62). Have students complete the student activity, Winner of Electoral Vote Wins It All! (page 61), individually or with partners. Pass out 50 index cards, assign states to the students. Each student should write his or her state(s) on a card. Distribute copies of Distribution of Electoral Votes (votes.pdf). Have students write the number of electoral votes on the cards for their states. Choose the names of two major presidential candidates from a recent or upcoming election and write them on the board. Each student gets to decide which candidate will win his or her states’ votes. Call the name of each state. The student with that state name responds: “The state of _____ casts _____ votes for _____.” Keep a tally on the board. Discuss the total vote. Remind students that this is just a way for them to understand how many electoral votes are cast each presidential election year and how some states get more votes than others. This is not the way the votes are actually cast. Electors meet together and vote in their state and send that vote to the House of Representatives who verifies the vote. Extension Idea In pairs, have students research the election process of a country of their choice. When complete, they should present their findings to the class. © Teacher Created Materials 59 #19949—Primary Sources: Elections Using Primary Sources Electoral Maps The Electoral College (cont.) Historical Background Information The Electoral College is not a school. It is a group of electors from each state who cast their states’ votes for president and vice president. Presidential election voting is rather confusing. There are two kinds of votes. The popular vote means the votes recorded by American citizens who vote in the election. The electoral vote means the number of votes awarded to a candidate by each state. Some states have lots of electoral votes, others just a few. The number of electoral votes equals the number of senators and representatives each state has. For example, Missouri has two senators and nine representatives, so that state has 11 electoral votes. So, if the majority of people in Missouri vote for the Democratic candidate, all 11 electoral votes would go to that candidate. Texas has 34 votes and California has 55 electoral votes. Whoever wins one of those states receives a lot of electoral votes. A presidential candidate can win the popular vote and lose the electoral vote—so he does not become president. This has happened several times in the history of the United States. In 1800, there were 20 states. The 1800 election attracted five candidates. Four of these candidates were very close in their votes. John Adams ran for a second term and his vice president Thomas Jefferson ran against him. Aaron Burr, James Pinckney, and John Jay also ran for president. Aaron Burr and Thomas Jefferson tied with 73 votes. Adams had 65 votes and Pinckney had 64. There cannot be two presidents. So the House of Representatives voted to break the tie and choose the president. Thomas Jefferson won by 10 votes, and so Burr became the vice president. Another historic election was in 1860. The country was in great turmoil. The United States was very close to splitting into two countries. By this time, presidential and vice presidential candidates ran together on one political party’s ticket. During the election, there were four sets of candidates. Abraham Lincoln and Hannibal Hamlin ran on the Republican ticket. John Cabell Breckenridge and Joseph Lane ran as Southern Democrats. John Bell and Edward Everett ran on the Constitutional Union ticket. Stephen Douglas and Herschel Vespasian Johnson were from the Democratic Party. The Lincoln/Hamlin ticket won with 39 percent of the popular vote and 59 percent of the electoral vote. However, all their electoral votes were from more populated Northern states. Southern citizens felt the election was unfair. They had warned that if Lincoln won the election they would leave the union and form their own country. By December 1860, Southern states started leaving the union. By 1861, they had formed the Confederate States of America, a new country. In 1968, the Democratic presidential candidate was Hubert Humphrey, the vice president under Lyndon Johnson. The Republican candidate was Richard Nixon who had lost the 1960 election to John Kennedy. There was also a third party candidate, George Wallace, who was against desegregation of schools. Wallace won four Southern states. Humphrey won Texas, Washington, Michigan, Minnesota, Pennsylvania, New York, and some New England states. Nixon won all the rest and became president of the United States. The popular vote was very close and if Wallace had not been in the race, Humphrey would have won the popular vote. But he still may have lost the electoral vote which is what really matters. #19949—Primary Sources: Elections 60 © Teacher Created Materials Using Primary Sources Electoral Maps Name ______________________________________________________ Winner of Electoral Vote Wins It All! Background Information The United States Electoral College is made up of groups of electors from each state who meet once every four years to elect the president and vice president of the United States of America. Electors are people from each state chosen to cast the electoral votes for that state. The Electoral College was established by Article Two, Section One of the Constitution. The whole Electoral College never meets as a single group. Instead, the electors in each state meet within their states to cast their votes. These voting sessions are supervised by state officials. Activity Directions: Look at the maps and answer the following questions using complete sentences. Analyze the 1800 map 1. How many states were in the union then? 2. How many votes did the two winners get? Who broke the tie? 3. How many candidates were running for president? Analyze the 1860 map 1. How many states were in the union then? 2. How many electoral votes did the winner get? Which big states did he win? 3. How many candidates were running for president? Which one came in second? Analyze the 1968 map 1. How many states were in the union then? 2. How many votes did the winner get? Which big states did he win? 3. How many candidates were running for president? Did that make a difference in the election? Challenge Compare the 2004 election to the other three elections. How was it alike and similar? Find the results to the 2000 election. How were the 2000 and 2004 elections similar and different? © Teacher Created Materials 61 #19949—Primary Sources: Elections Using Primary Sources Electoral Maps Name ______________________________________________________ Electoral College Reading Comprehension Questions Directions: Use the historical background information to answer the following questions. 1. What is the difference between the electoral vote and the popular vote? ___________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________ 2. How is the number of electoral votes for each state decided? ___________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________ 3. How many electoral votes does your state have? ___________________________________________________________ 4. Who won the election in 1800? ___________________________________________________________ 5. What happened to the man who came in second place? ___________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________ © Teacher Created Materials Publishing #11001 Primary Sources—Elections Using Primary Sources Electoral Maps Electoral College Reading