Extra! Extra!

1. Find your state. Who is your current governor? Is he/she up for re-election in 2016? Does your state have term limits for governor? Term limits for governor mean the governor can only serve so many terms in office as dictated by the laws in your state.

2. Who are your two U.S. Senators? Research each one and answer the following questions for each:

1. When was the senator first elected?
2. How many terms has the senator served? How long is one term for a U.S. Senator?
3. Are there term limits for U.S. Senators?
4. Name the political party affiliation of each senator.
5. Research each senator and the committees in the U.S. Senate on which they are members.
6. What is their role on the committees?
7. Of the 100 senators in the U.S. Senate, how many will be up for re-election in 2016?
8. Research the U.S. Senate at http://www.senate.gov

1. Absentee ballot: a way for a person to vote by mailing in a paper ballot if he/she is not going to be home on Election Day or is unable to go to their polling place 2. Ballot box: the box where ballots are placed that are then taken to a central location to be counted 3. Beltway: the area in and around Washington, D.C., the nation's capital where all three branches of the federal government (executive, judicial, and legislative) are based 4. Bipartisan: neutral, favors neither the Republican Party nor the Democratic Party 5. Blue state: a state that typically votes for Democratic Party candidates. 6. Constituent: a person who is part of politicians' responsibility for representation whether at the local, state, or federal level 7. Electoral college: the process through which the president is officially elected based on electors from each state whose numbers are determined by population 8. Grass roots: a term that indicates an issue or campaign is firmly based with ordinary people 9. Incumbent: a politician who has been elected to office and is running a campaign to be re-elected to that office 10. Independent: a voter who claims he/she is not associated with a formal political party 11. Lame duck: any politician who will not be returning to office but will still serve out his/her term between Election Day and the swearing-in date for new office holders 12. Red state: a state that typically votes for Republican Party candidates 13. Stump speech: a speech given by a politician over and over again at many campaign events to reinforce his/her message to the voters 14. Swing state: states that go back and forth between red states and blue states so are often called “purple” states 15. Term limits: laws that say certain politicians can only serve a finite number of terms; U.S. Congress members do NOT have term limits but the president of the United States and many state governors do have term limits	Political ads evoke powerful emotions Oct. 3, 2016 - To understand the punch, power, and pure emotion behind political ads, visit I Approve This Message: Decoding Political Ads What are the Iowa Caucuses? Jan. 13, 2016 - It was bitterly cold in Iowa yesterday but the political climate is red hot before the Feb. 1 Iowa Caucuses. Candidates have been in and out of Iowa for more than one year in anticipation of the first step the nation takes every four years to elect a president.  .

For a pdf of the 2016 Electors by State, CLICK HERE.

The Electoral College
The Electoral College is not a place where students go to school but a term that describes the governing body that officially elects the President and Vice-President of the United States. The Founding Fathers defined the presidential election process in the Constitution.

The District of Columbia (Washington D.C.) and 48 states follow a "winner take all" system for awarding electoral votes. In this system, the candidate who receives a majority of votes or a plurality (< 50 percent but more than any other candidate) receives all of the state's electoral votes. Only two states - Nebraska and Maine - follow another system, a system of proportional allocation in that the electoral votes can be divided based on the popular vote.

Through the Secretary of State offices, many states post unofficial vote totals online after the polls close. To find your state, visit the National Association of Secretaries of State, NASS.

Article II, Section 1 of the Constitution states: “Each State shall appoint, in such Manner as the Legislature thereof may direct, a Number of Electors, equal to the whole Number of Senators and Representatives to which the State may be entitled in the Congress: but no Senator or Representative, or Person holding an Office of Trust or Profit under the United States, shall be appointed an Elector.” The term, Electoral College, was coined after the Constitution was written and refers to the sum of Electors from the States and the District of Columbia (Washington D.C.).

With 435 members of the House of Representatives and 100 Senators, the number of Electors totals 535. But an additional three Electors are appointed for the District of Columbia bringing the total number of Electors to 538. To become President of the United States, a candidate must receive 270 electoral votes, or one more than 50 percent of 538.

The popular vote indirectly chooses the President of the United States as the candidate who receives the most votes in each state is usually given all of the electoral votes for that state. So it is possible to win the popular vote but lose the election in the Electoral College as happened in 2000 when Al Gore (Democrat) received the most votes but George Bush (Republican) received the required number of electoral votes when Florida’s electors went for Bush following a Supreme Court ruling.