What Is the Electoral College?

Explicit Instruction/Teacher modeling

• Take a quick poll. Write "chocolate ice cream vs. strawberry ice cream" on the board.
• Ask your students to raise their hands if they like chocolate ice cream and record their votes as individual tallies on the board. Repeat with strawberry ice cream and tally the votes. Announce the winner of the poll (the flavor with the most votes).
• Explain that this voting method is called a popular vote because it counts each individual vote and the choice with the most votes wins.
• Tell students that this is not how the president of the United States is elected. In the U.S. we use a system called the electoral vote in which citizens' interests are represented by a select few. We call this group of representatives the electoral college.
• Provide a summary of how the electoral college operates:
  • People can cast their individual votes for the presidential candidate of their choice.
  • Then, the members of the electoral college cast their votes based on the popular vote in their state. So, if 49 percent of the people in a state vote for chocolate ice cream and 51 percent vote for strawberry, all the electoral votes for that state are given to strawberry.
  • Only the votes from the electoral college are recognized as formal votes.
  • The candidate with the most electoral votes is elected president. In some cases, this might be different than the popular vote.
• Explain that the number of electoral college votes in a given state is based on the state's population. So states with more people are given more electoral college votes. For example, California currently has 55 electoral college votes, whereas Alaska has only three.
• Remind students that there are a total of 538 electoral votes, so to win a presidential election, a candidate must win at least 270 votes.
• Display the Electoral Vote worksheet and complete it with the class.

Guided Practice

• Split students into an odd number of groups. (Note: if possible, ensure that each group will also have an odd number of students. Groups can be different sizes.)
• Tell students that they will be voting on a special privilege. Offer two popular outcomes, like extra recess time or no homework.
• Hand out one slip of paper to each student and tell them to write their choice on the paper. Then, select one member from each group to collect the votes and tally them.
• Explain that the selected member from each group represents the electoral college and that they will cast their formal vote based on the popular vote for their group.
• Call on the representative from each group to stand and announce their electoral vote. Record the electoral votes on the board.
• Announce the winner of the electoral vote.
• Ask students to share their impressions of the process in a short class discussion.

Independent working time

• On the board, write "What is the best way to vote?"
• Hand out a sheet of paper, or instruct students to take out a writing notebook.
• Tell students to respond to the prompt on the board by writing a paragraph about their opinion. Remind students to include examples or evidence to support their opinion.
• Invite students to share their finished paragraph with a partner.