AIMSThe Electoral College has generated plenty of controversy and discussion in recent decades, thanks to the contested election result in 2000 and the presidential election of 2016, in which about 3 million more votes were cast for the candidate who lost the Electoral College (Hillary Clinton) than the one who won (President Donald Trump).
The aim of this gate is for you to understand why the Founders chose to create the Electoral College as the method for electing the President and Vice President, as well as how that system works and has affected election outcomes. |
If, before looking at how the Electoral College works, you want an explanation of how United States elections work, in general, check out the optional video below:
|
ELECTORAL COLLEGE MATHEMATICS: Numbers to know
538: Total number of electoral votes
270: Number of electoral votes needed to win the presidency |
Number of U.S. House representatives (which is based on a state's population) + 2 Senators (each state has 2) = Number of electoral votes a state has in the Electoral College
|
FIRST STEP: GATE 7A ASSIGNMENT
Electoral College Treasure Hunt
OPEN THIS WORD DOC IN GOOGLE DOCS: Under "File," click "Save as a Google Doc." Then you can begin working on the assignment. When finished, submit it to JupiterEd by logging in to Jupiter, then clicking the "Grades" tab. Find the name of the assignment for the gate you have completed and click on it. You can then upload your assignment with the "Google Drive" option.
IF YOU'RE WORKING ON A MAC OR WINDOWS PC . . . this assignment will download as a Word document. You can complete the assignment in Word (or in Pages app), but you MUST EXPORT it to PDF and then upload the PDF version to JupiterEd. Thank you.
|
WHAT THE CONSTITUTION STATES . . .Regarding the President's election, Article II, Section 1, Clause 2 states: "He shall hold his Office during the Term of four Years, and, together with the Vice President, chosen for the same Term, be elected, as follows . . ."
Regarding whom may run for President, Article II, Section 1, Clause 6 states: "No Person except a natural born Citizen, or a Citizen of the United States, at the time of the Adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the Office of President; neither shall any person be eligible to that Office who shall not have attained to the Age of thirty five Years, and been fourteen Years a Resident within the United States." |
SOURCE A
|
SOURCE B
|
DEFINITIONS
Electoral College: The method the Constitution prescribes for the election of the President and Vice President, as modified by the 12th Amendment to the Constitution; in a nutshell, voters elect party slates of electors, who then elect the President and Vice President.
Elector: A person selected by a state legislature to cast votes for the state in the actual Electoral College election (usually held in December).
Popular vote: The raw total of all votes cast for the presidential candidates in a presidential election (from all states), without any consideration of Electoral College math or realities.
Elector: A person selected by a state legislature to cast votes for the state in the actual Electoral College election (usually held in December).
Popular vote: The raw total of all votes cast for the presidential candidates in a presidential election (from all states), without any consideration of Electoral College math or realities.
STEP 2: GATE 7B ASSIGNMENT
"Win the White House" game (iCivics)
OPEN THIS WORD DOC IN GOOGLE DOCS: Under "File," click "Save as a Google Doc." Then you can begin working on the assignment. When finished, submit it to JupiterEd by logging in to Jupiter, then clicking the "Grades" tab. Find the name of the assignment for the gate you have completed and click on it. You can then upload your assignment with the "Google Drive" option.
IF YOU'RE WORKING ON A MAC OR WINDOWS PC . . . this assignment will download as a Word document. You can complete the assignment in Word (or in Pages app), but you MUST EXPORT it to PDF and then upload the PDF version to JupiterEd. Thank you.
|
LAST STEP: GATE 7C ASSIGNMENT
|
ADDITIONAL BACKGROUNDThe President serves a four-year term. The 22nd Amendment to the Constitution limits a president to two elected terms of service. To elect the President, the United States has a complicated system for the election of the President and Vice President of the United States called the "Electoral College." The roots of this compromise solution go back to negotiations to satisfy delegates from smaller states (and, many would argue, to protect slavery as an institution), as well as the founders' concerns about letting the populace directly vote for such a powerful position. Sources B and C go into this history in more detail.
In 1824, Andrew Jackson won more votes (in a four-candidate race) than John Quincy Adams, but Adams became President because he was selected by the House of Representatives, as called for by the 12th Amendment to the Constitution. In the years 1876, 1888, 2000 and 2016, the presidential candidate receiving the most votes (in other words, the winner of the popular vote) nevertheless lost the Electoral College vote (which is tallied by adding up the electoral votes granted by each state). While this development has been rare in the broad sweep of U.S. history, it has affected recent history in significant ways. Consider the contrast between the two tables below: LAST 7 ELECTION RESULTS (Electoral College):
1992: Bill Clinton (D) 1996: Bill Clinton (D) 2000: George W. Bush (R) 2004: George W. Bush (R) 2008: Barack Obama (D) 2012: Barack Obama (D) 2016: Donald Trump (R) LAST 7 ELECTION RESULTS (Popular Vote):
1992: Bill Clinton (D) 1996: Bill Clinton (D) 2000: Al Gore (D) 2004: George W. Bush* (R) 2008: Barack Obama (D) 2012: Barack Obama (D) 2016: Hillary Clinton (D) Democratic candidates have actually won the most votes in 6 of the past 7 presidential elections, losing only in 2004 (when George W. Bush was an incumbent following 9/11; if the popular vote were the method used, Al Gore would have been the incumbent candidate in 2004, perhaps altering later results in ways that could only be guessed). But they have only generated two presidential administrations in those years, due to the Electoral College wins in 2000 by Bush (in which the deciding Florida electoral votes were intensely contested by both sides) and in 2016 by current President Trump. Thus, it is easy to see how the debate over whether to modernize or replace the Electoral College could be divided along partisan lines.
|