Today’s Agenda

1. Today’s Agenda Any Announcements? Any Questions? Let's Review our Bellwork.... Now... Let’s Begin Today’s Lesson…..

2. Our Standards Today • Elections and the Political Process • Students evaluate issues regarding campaigns for national, state, and local elective offices. • GC.26 Explain the history of the nomination process for presidential candidates and the increasing importance of and difference between primaries, caucuses and general elections. (H, P)

3. Our objectives today Explain why the nominating process is a critical first step in the election process. Describe self-announcement, caucus and primaries as nominating methods. Discuss the nominating method used in the United States today for our presidential election. Understand why some candidates use the petition as a nominating device.

4. Voter Turnout in Murfreesboro 2010 Mayor Race According to the U.S. Census, the population of Murfreesboro was 109,048 in April of 2010. According to that same census, 23.5% were under 18. http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/47/4751560.html That leaves 83,422 people old enough to vote. How many voted for mayor of Murfreesboro? Lets look.... http://www.rutherfordcounty.org/election/042010/index.htm` What percentage of adults in Murfreesboro voted in the mayor's race?

5. The Nominating Process Today's Terms: nomination caucus closed primary open primary runoff primary self-announcement petition candidacy general election non-partisan election

6. A couple of videos to explain the process... These videos explain how we get our presidential candidates....

7. To Recap the Videos

8. Nomination nom·i·na·tion [nom-uh-ney-shuhn] noun 1. an act or instance of nominating, especially to office: The floor is open for nomination of candidates for the presidency. 2. the state of being nominated. (http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/nomination)

9. Election Cycle

10. Caucus Caucus – A meeting of party members designed to select candidates and propose policies. (Page 302 in your text book) This video attempts to explain the Iowa caucus....

11. Caucus

13. Open or Closed? Primaries National Conference of State Legislators: http://www.ncsl.org/research/elections-and-campaigns/primary-types.aspx In some primaries, if no candidate gets more than 50% of the votes, the top two candidates run again in another run-off primary to find the winner.

14. 'Self-Announcement' My county mayor campaign. I utilized the Petition Candidacy process. http://www.rutherfordcountytn.gov/election/qualifying.htm I picked up a petition and found 50 registered voters in the county to sign it and I was placed on the ballot.

15. General Election After all the candidates have been identified and qualified, they are placed on the election's ballot. A General election is the election where the office holders are voted into office. A HOT debate in our county is whether our local office elections should be partisan or non-partisan. An article in our local newspaper took a look at the issue.

16. Group Time.... Before we form groups today, we must first identify our candidates for STUDENT of the CLASS. The Winner of this election gets to waive one RESPONSE with full credit in our next test. Our nominating process today will be a 'silent' caucus to garner the 'viability' of our candidates. Take out a sheet of paper. Nominate three candidates, and number them as your first, second and third choice. Number your choices as #1, #2 and #3. Candidates getting first place votes will receive 3 points, second place gets 2 and third place gets 1 point. The top four vote-getters will be our candidates today.

17. We have our candidates! Lets see how a caucus works. Each candidate please stand up and go to a corner of the classroom. Each student now choose the candidate you support by moving and sitting in a desk close to the candidate you support. I will then call on each candidate and some of the voters to make a short statement asking others for their support. After our statements we will 'vote' by asking you to change your seat if you choose to do so. We will then count the votes. After each vote we will eliminate the candidate with the fewest votes.

18. Now we will do a primary for our other candidate. Everyone return to your seats. We have three candidates remaining. On a sheet of paper, write down the candidate you vote for. Now we will count the votes...

19. Now for the General Election We have our two candidates. Now take another sheet of paper and vote for the Student of the Class. We will now count the votes....

20. Our Standards Today • Elections and the Political Process • Students evaluate issues regarding campaigns for national, state, and local elective offices. • GC.26 Explain the history of the nomination process for presidential candidates and the increasing importance of and difference between primaries, caucuses and general elections. (H, P)

21. Our objectives today Explain why the nominating process is a critical first step in the election process. Describe self-announcement, caucus and primaries as nominating methods. Discuss the nominating method used in the United States today for our presidential election. Understand why some candidates use the petition as a nominating device.

22. What Did We Learn Today? On a separate sheet of paper, answer these questions for me to take up and review. Assessment Questions What is a caucus? What is the difference between an open and closed primary? What does the term 'self-announced candidate' mean?