Essential Skill: Explicitly Assess Information and Draw Conclusions Tuesday, 12/23/14, Day 3 Essential Skill: Explicitly Assess Information and Draw Conclusions 1-Test on Tuesday, 1/6 2-The Electoral College and its Alternatives Pros/Cons

Every 10 years after the census 1. What is the main difference between most elections and presidential elections? In most elections, the people vote directly for the candidate In presidential elections, people vote for electors who cast their votes for the candidate   2. How many Electoral College votes are there total? 538 [3 electors for D.C.] 3. How many Electoral votes does it take to win the Presidency? 270 4. How many Electoral votes does the state of Pennsylvania have? 20 5. How are the number of Electoral votes in each state determined? Combined number of a state’s 2 senators and members in the House of Representatives 6. How often does the number of votes per state change (after what event?)  Every 10 years after the census

General Election Election Day – Tuesday after the fist Monday in November Every registered voter can vote for President / VP Officially selected by Electors (Electoral College) Number decided by total number of reps in Congress (+3) 270 wins the election

Electoral College -Monday after the second Wednesday in December

The Electoral College and its Alternatives What is the best way to elect the President? *Work with your group and read and annotate the 3 handouts *Fill out the “Pros” and “Cons” for each plan *You should divide the reading and share the information *Be prepared to discuss what you consider to be the best plan or come up with your own plan 1-The Electoral College Ensures Nationwide, Moderate and Stable Parties 2-Direct Election Plan: Elimination of the Electoral College 3-The National Popular Vote Effort Explained

Electoral College Direct Election Proportional Plan District Plan What do you think is the best way to elect the President? Electoral College Direct Election Proportional Plan District Plan National Popular Vote Other???

Proportional Plan Retains the Electoral College, but awards the votes in each state based on the percentage of votes received in each state.   Each candidate would receive of each state’s electoral vote equal to his hare of the state’s popular vote. So a candidate who won 60% of the state’s popular vote with 10 electors would get 6 electoral votes

District Plan Each state would choose its electors like it chooses it members of congress: 2 electors from each state at large: they would be required to cast their electoral vote in line with the popular vote in their state.   The state’s other electors would be chosen separately, in each of the state’s congressional districts. The votes of these electors would be cast in accord with the popular votes in their districts [Maine and Nebraska have this] The plan preserves the Electoral College, but would eliminate the winner take all aspect. Winner of a simple majority of the popular vote would be elected.

National Popular Vote Goal: electing future presidents via the popular vote.   Seeks to get states that comprise a majority of the electoral votes: 270, to agree to award their electoral votes to the winner of the national popular vote. These states a are not required to allot their electoral votes to the national popular vote winner until the effort has garnered the number of states it needs to get the 270 electoral votes.

Regulations and Loopholes Campaign Finance: Regulations and Loopholes

The Presidential election spend the largest share of campaign dollars $2.5 Billion in 2012 All of Congress=$2 billion in 2012

1-What is the difference between hard and soft money? Hard money: Contributions that are given directly to candidates for their campaigns for Congress or the presidency, are limited in amount and must be reported.   Soft money: funds given to parties or to other political organizations, in unlimited amounts. to be used for such party-building activities as voter registration or get-out-the-vote drives for campaigns for or against particular public policies. .

 2-What was the soft money loophole of the 1980s and 1990s? Both parties found it easy to filter these funds into their presidential and congressional campaigns. Went from $19 million in 1980 to $500 million in 2000. These amounts prompted Congress to enact the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act [BCRA] of 2002. [aka McCain-Feingold Law]

It bans soft money contributions to political parties. 3-What did the BCRA ban? What loophole remained? It bans soft money contributions to political parties. But the law does not say that other political organization cannot raise and spend those dollars.   Parties found way around the ban: independent groups: “527s” after the section of the Internal Revenue code under which they operate as tax-free entities. Some $200 million dollars poured through this loophole in 2004 and more in subsequent elections.

So they would not unduly influence members of Congress. 4-Why do you think Congress made it illegal for any corporation to donate to candidates? So they would not unduly influence members of Congress.

 5-In what ways are PACs like a “legal loophole”? Neither corporations nor labor unions can contribute directly to any candidate for federal office. Their political action committees can and do. PACS are the political arms of special-interest groups and other organizations with a stake in electoral politics.   PACS seek to affect the making of public policy and are interested in the out of elections.

They cannot seek contributions from the general public 6-What are the two kinds of PACs? How are they similar/different?   1-Political arms of special interest groups, esp. business associations, labor unions and professional organizations. They can only raise funds from their members: executives, employees and stockholders of a corporation, from members of labor unions They cannot seek contributions from the general public 2-Non-connected committees: established as an independent entity, not as a unit to some larger organization. Many ideologically based. Can raise money from public.

7-Do PACs give money to candidates to spend or do they spend the money themselves to aid candidates? They bundle the money they gather and pool into a single large fund. They distribute that money to those candidates who: 1-are sympathetic to the PACs policy goals, and 2-have a reasonable change of winning the race.

Citizens United v. F.E.C. [2010] In a 5-4 decision, the Supreme Court ruled: The FECs ban on political spending by corporations and unions is a violation of the 1st Amendment’s right to free speech. Money=Free Speech Led to the creation of Super PACS

Super PACS are independent PACS, unaffiliated with any party. 8-Do Super PACs give money to candidates to spend or do they spend the money themselves to aid candidates?   Super PACS are independent PACS, unaffiliated with any party. They are allowed to raise and spend unlimited amounts, although they must reveal their donors and cannot work directly with a candidate’s campaign. Their major donors are corporations and unions and spent $621 million in 2012.

9-How might money that is spent by Super PACs / 527s / 501c organizations help a candidate’s campaign -- even though it can’t be given directly to the candidate and their campaign? They can run positive/negative ads about a candidate.

10-Why do you think Obama declined public money? He could raise unlimited funds and not be limited by the FEC