Electoral College
What is the Electoral College?
The Electoral College is the system we use to elect the President.
How many amendments does the Bill of Rights have?
10
What was the Articles of Confederation?
The Articles of Confederation was the first system of government used in the United States. It had many weaknesses or problems with it because it created a strong government just for individual states. The national government was TOO WEAK to be effective under this system of government.
The legislative branch is made up of two houses of Congress. What are those two houses?
The House of Representatives and the Senate
How many electoral votes does one need to win the presidency?
To win the presidency, one must get at least 270 electoral votes.
270 is 50.1% of 538.
The First Amendment protects 5 freedoms. What are they?
1. Speech
2. Religion
3. Press
4. Petition
5. Protest
What was the Great Compromise?
3 Branches of Government, which included:
2 Houses of Congress, which are:
The House of Representatives: Every state has a different number of people in the House of Representatives. The number is based on the state’s population.
The Senate: Every state has 2 senators which gives states with a low population as much power as states with high populations.
How many senators does each state have?
2
How many electors does Oregon have?
Each state has a number of electors equal to the number of:
#U.S. Senators + #of U.S. Representatives
So Oregon has 8.
A student wears a t-shirt to school that criticizes the president. He is told his shirt violates the school’s dress code policy. Which amendment protects his choice to wear his shirt?
First amendment
What was the Constitutional Convention? What was the purpose?
A secret meeting “for the sole and express purpose of revising the Articles of Confederation”
How long is a term of office for a member of the Supreme Court?
Life with good behavior
Some political analysts are critical of the electoral college. Name at least one of the major problems of the electoral college.
1. The election is decided by the House of Representatives if no electoral majority is reached.
2. Individual voters in the 39 smaller U.S. states have a proportionally larger share of the vote than the larger states.
(Ex: Wyoming‘s population is currently 498,703. They have one member of the House and two members of the Senate. That means that one electoral vote represents 166,234 people. Oregon’s current ratio? 1:502,857. California’s is 1:713,636.)
3. A President can be elected to office even if the majority of people voted for another person.
A student is walking home from school when a police officer asks her to show what is inside her backpack. The student refuses, and the police officer takes her backpack and looks in it anyway, even though there is no reason to suspect her of anything illegal. The officer’s action violates which amendment?
The officer’s action violates the Fourth Amendment.
The Fourth Amendment protects people from unreasonable searches and seizures. Because the police officer did not have reasonable suspicion or a warrant, searching the student’s backpack was unconstitutional.
Name at least one thing included in the Three-Fifths Compromise.
Slaves would be counted as 3 / 5 (three-fifths) of a person in a state’s population.
Congress could not stop the slave trade for at least 20 more years.
A fugitive slave law that said if a slave escaped and was found, even if they were in a free state, they had to be returned to their “owner.”
What 3 jobs are included in the Executive Branch?
This branch includes the President, Vice President, and Cabinet Members.