HW READING ASSIGNMENTS PACKET: UNIT 2
DUE 3/4: Read PP. 1-2: The Perils of Extreme Democracy. Be prepared for quiz.
DUE 3/5: Read P. 3: Are We A Republic or a Democracy? Be prepared for quiz.
DUE 3/6: Read PP. 4-5: The Politics of Solipsism. Be prepared for quiz.
DUE 3/10: Read P. 6: Gridlock. Be prepared for quiz.
DUE 3/12: Read PP. 7-9, debate over enlightened autocracy. Be prepared for quiz.
DUE 3/17: Read PP. 10-12 Electoral College debates. Be prepared for quiz.
DUE 3/19: Read PP. 13-14 Deconstructing the Administrative State. Be prepared for quiz
TEST DATE AND REVIEW ASSIGNMENT DUE: TUESDAY 3/20/20
ONLINE WORK TO COMPLETE AT HOME
Hello Seniors! The following applies to Part Gov periods 1,3, and 8. To complete Unit 2: Constitutional Principles, spend time every day & follow these steps:
1. Carefully read and annotate your entire Unit 2 Notes Packet.
2. Watch these short videos. I recommend pausing to take notes.
The 9th Amendment [I wish they mentioned natural rights, that's what the 9th Amend is about!]
3. Complete the following reading assignments:
Period 1: Read Williams: A Democracy or a Republic? and in an email or on looseleaf paper, write a half page summary, followed by a half page explaining your opinion. If you use looseleaf, take a pic of your work and email to me.
Periods 3 and 8: Follow your assignment sheet and complete your HW readings.
4. Our first at home exam is a FRQ Test made from the review assignment.
If you already did an amazing job on the review, you can turn it in as the test by emailing me pics of it. Or just take the test on google classroom (you need a shufsd account for that).
Take the online exam by 2:30 MONDAY 3/23. A word doc copy is below. If you can't get in to google classroom because you don't have a shufsd account, and you did not yet complete the review assignment, just download the word doc, complete the test, then email it to me. (The Review Assignment is the test!)
TESTS ON GOOGLE CLASSROOM. CLASS CODES:
Part Gov R Period 1: ionwash
Part Gov H Periods 3,8: 2y2ondp
EMAIL apennino@shufsd.org
UNDERSTANDING THE ELECTORAL COLLEGE
The first thing to get in your head is this: the least important thing about the Electoral College are the electors who we call the Electoral College. Those people are a formality. In half of the states they are required by law to vote for the winner in their state. In the states that don't require it, the electors rarely vote against the winner. In other words, all that stuff you heard about electors being elites who can vote against the will of the people is mostly useless babble. Think of the electoral college as a system.
HERE'S WHAT'S IMPORTANT:
1. THE EC SYSTEM REFLECTS FEDERALISM.
One Nation: the president is the ONLY position in our entire government for which all Americans of all states have a vote.
Separate States: On the other hand, we do not vote for president as Americans. We vote as New Yorkers, Texans, etc. So presidential candidates are trying to win states, rather than simply trying to win the most votes nation wide.
2. THE EC SYSTEM, REFLECTING A REPUBLIC, LIMITS PURE MAJORITY RULE.
On one hand, the election of the president is democratic: the candidate who wins the electoral vote in each state does so by winning the majority vote there. Winning the majority of electoral votes nationwide (at least 270 electoral votes out of 538) means winning the presidency.
On the other hand, pure majority rule is limited or contained. While big population states have more power to determine who wins the presidency, small states have more of a say than they would if we had a nation-wide pure majority vote instead of an electoral system. This doesn't make small states equal with big states, but it makes them less unequal. The electoral college system encourages candidates to appeal to broad and diverse interests, not just the will of the big states and big cities. Think of smaller states and voters who don't live in cities as minorities, who in a republic, must be listended to. The big states and cities have the electoral advantage, but they don't have total power.
HOW DOES THE EC SYSTEM WORK?
1. Each state has a number of electors equal to its total representation in Congress. THE MATH: Each state has 2 senators, plus, states can have as few as 1 representative in the House, all the way to 53, based on their population. The smallest states have 3 electors; California has 55. See how the system is a compromise, a balance? (Finally, the citizens of Washington, DC have three electoral votes as a city). Total number of electoral votes: 538.
2. The political party organizations in each state decide who gets to be an elector for that party's candidate. So on election day, each candidate for president has a slate of electors (equal in number to that state's electoral votes) ready to vote for them in the electoral college. For those electors to get to do that, the candidate must win the majority vote in that state (all states hold elections for president on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November). In almost all the states, all you need is a simple majority, and you win ALL the state's electoral votes: all of your electors will cast ballots in the Electoral College vote, which takes place mid December. In Maine and Nebraska, they split their electoral votes if the vote is close. It's up to the states if they want to do that! Some state legislatures (ie Colorado) even recently voted to surrender the state electoral votes to the winner of the national popular vote. We will see how that works out in election 2020.
I hope this helps clarify the electoral College SYSTEM.
