Electing the President: Voter Apathy

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Key Concepts: participatory democracy; electoral politics

Duration: two (2) double-blocks (middle and high school), four (4) class periods (elementary school)

Goal: Students will understand the relationship between electoral engagement and political theory.

Objective: Students will learn how the form and function of representative government determines the degree voter apathy in a democratic system.

Essential Question: Does voter apathy decrease if a parliamentary (proportional) system of government replaces a congressional (winner-take-all) system?

Common Core Standards Met: CCR English Language Arts Standards 7-10

21st-Century Skills Employed: Civic Literacy

Procedures

Session One:

Introduce topic and question, then direct students to read the following online articles PBS NewsHour: Is The System Broken? (elementary/middle school); International Business Times: Why is There so Much Voter Apathy in U.S. Elections? (advanced middle school/high school) and discuss the following table of voter turnout from 1960 to 2010: National Voter Turnout in Federal Elections: 1960–2010.

Lecture: explain the difference between proportional (e.g., Europe) and winner-take-all (e.g., United States) electoral system.

Break the students into pairs. Have one student in each pair list the characteristics of a proportional system and have the other do the same for a winner-take-all system.

Have each pair then combine their separate lists into one table that places similar and/or opposing characteristics next to one another.

Grade Scale: 5 (A), 4 (B), 3 (C), 2 (D), 1 (F)