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Electoral College. How we really vote for our next president…. Sidebar. NBC Nightly News clip from 11/15/10 4 th Amendment and new airport screening measures What do you think?. The Debate. Read the 10.1 Introduction on pages 177-178 in the Government Alive! Book What happened?.
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Electoral College How we really vote for our next president….
Sidebar NBC Nightly News clip from 11/15/10 • 4th Amendment and new airport screening measures • What do you think?
The Debate • Read the 10.1 Introduction on pages 177-178 in the Government Alive! Book • What happened?
What happens? • Each state designates it’s own electors who promise to lend support to your candidate • Number of electors from each state equals the number of its members in Congress • Colorado has 9… how did I arrive at that number? • 538 total (D.C. has 3) • To win you must have 270 electoral votes
Direct popular vote? • Let’s read pg. 191 starting at: “Not surprisingly…” • Options: • Direct popular vote • Congressional district method • National popular vote
Gradual Expansion of Suffrage suffrage= right to vote
History of Voting • Original Constitution said very little about voting and elections • President and Vice President election details only • Only 6% of population at that time had voting rights • John Jay, “Those who own the country ought to govern it.” • What did he mean when he said that? • 1820 provided a movement to open voting to all white males regardless of property ownership
Civil Rights Movement • “Civil War Amendments” • 13th Amendment ends slavery • 14th Amendment guarantees citizenship • 15th Amendment guarantees African Americans the right to vote, including former slaves • Then why were they still fighting for their right to vote in the 1960s during the period of the Civil Rights Movement?
Voting Legal Barriers • Literacy tests= proctored tests to determine if the voter could read and write • Poll Taxes= citizens had to pay back taxes before being permitted to vote • Events leading to Civil Rights Act/Voting Act • Lyndon B. Johnson’s Speech on Voting Rights "Rarely are we met with a challenge…..to the values and the purposes and the meaning of our beloved Nation. The issue of equal rights for American Negroes is such as an issue…..the command of the Constitution is plain. It is wrong - deadly wrong - to deny any of your fellow Americans the right to vote in this country."
Women’s Suffrage • 1893- 1st country to allow women to vote was New Zealand • Why did frustration about women’s voting rights start here in the U.S.? • After the Civil War (15th Amendment) • 1890- Wyoming the 1st state to enfranchise women (same year they entered the Union) • Let’s read We the People pgs. 137-138
Women’s Suffrage cont…. • Washington Parade (from Iron Jawed Angels)
More recent voting changes • 1971- 26th Amendment • Lowers voting age to 18 • 1993- Motor Voter Act • Makes it easier to register to vote