Learning Objectives:

  1. 3/4 - I can explain how the different processes work in a US presidential election (Primaries, incumbency advantage, party conventions, Electoral College)
  2. 3/4 - I can explain how the Electoral College affects U.S. presidential elections

Activity 1: Does Your Vote Count?

Instructions: Watch the video (LINK) and answer the question below as you watch.

How many electors does each state get and how are they decided? Each state gets electors equal to voting power and they’re decided by population size
How do candidates win the presidency? Winning 270 electors
Why do some states have more electoral votes than others? The census based on population sizes
What is the difference between a safe state and a swing state? Safe states vote same party while Swing states are inconsistent
Can a candidate win the popular vote but lose the election? If so, how? The more popular candidate would win votes from larger population while the less popular and winning candidate would take less populated areas but get the electors
What are the negatives of the Electoral College? States with more population hold a lot more power, bigger state votes are less important, swing states hold a lot of power, a candidate can lose the popular vote but lose the presidency
What are the benefits of the Electoral College? Protects small states

HISTORICAL ELECTIONS

Electoral College vs. Popular Vote

Directions – the following are some elections that will enable you to see how elections changed our history. Use the link below as a resource to fill in the charts and answer the questions.

http://www.270towin.com/historical-presidential-elections/

2024 Election

Presidential Ticket Popular Vote Electoral Vote
Harris/Walz 74,451,299 226
Trump/Vance 76,932,076 312

2016 Election

Presidential Ticket Popular Vote Electoral Vote
Trump/Pence 62,984,828 304
Clinton/Kaine 65,853,514 227
  1. What was significant about this election in regards to the Popular Vote and the Electoral Vote?
    1. Clinton won the popular vote but lost the election due to electoral votes
  2. How did Trump/Pence win this election? Which states did he win that gave him the overwhelming victory? What was unique about what took place with the “Blue Wall”?
    1. He managed to take control of the “Blue Wall” significantly weakening the electoral votes for the democratic party

2000 Election

Presidential Ticket Popular Vote Electoral Vote
Bush/Cheney 50,456,062 271
Gore/Lieberman 50,999,897 266
  1. What is significant about this election in regards to the Popular Vote and the Electoral Vote?
    1. Once again this is an example of winning the popular vote but losing the seat due to the electoral votes
  2. How did Ralph Nader possibly affect the country (refer to “Election Facts”)? He was a liberal.
    1. Ralph made it so a large population that could have effected the popular vote didn’t vote on the two major candidates.