ELECTORAL COLLEGE:
Benefits and Drawbacks

VIDEOCONFERENCE SERIES: Race for the Presidency

 

PRESENTER: Brook Thompson, TENNESSEE STATE COORDINATOR OF ELECTIONS

In this videoconference, students will discover how a presidential candidate can win the popular vote but not receive enough electoral votes to win the election. Presenter Brook Thompson, TENNESSEE STATE COORDINATOR of ELECTIONS, will give background about the establishment of the electoral college and how it functions, analyze various regions of the country and their voting trends, explore how these trends were reflected in the outcome of the 2000 presidential election and the 2004 presidential election, and then encourage students to predict how these regions will vote in the 2008 presidential election.

In this videoconference, students will take on the role of a political analyst, forecasting the electoral vote count for the 2008 presidential election. In order to make a prediction, students research campaign issues, the Electoral College, the role of swing states, and the importance of political participation. This lesson plan includes a fun classroom competition where students make electoral predictions and compare with the actual results following the November 4, 2008 Presidential Election.