"Fix It!" / "Predict It!"

Proposed Solutions to the 
Electoral College Debacle and 
Ways to Predict Election 2016

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By now, we know a few things: 1) the Electoral College system is very confusing in its origins, rationale, and application, 2) most Americans want to see it gone completely, yet 3) it's foundational to American democracy...

...or is it?

For this activity, you'll be doing two (2) things:
  1. Proposing a change to the current system, and
  2. Predicting who will win Election 2016!

Part I: Fix It!

In the past few decades especially, there has been a growing movement to ditch the Electoral College. But if we do, what would we do instead? If we were to change the Electoral College, it would have to be in the form of an amendment, as the Electoral College and its specificity is expressed in Article 2, Section 3 of the Constitution: 
  • The Electors shall meet in their respective States and vote by Ballot for [the president]…after the Choice of the President, the Person having the greatest Number of Votes of the Electors shall be the Vice President… 
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If we were to endeavor to change this language, you'll have to submit an Amendment! And that'll be your job for the first part of this activity.

When writing your amendment, consider the following, first:
  1. Do you want to ditch it completely and go with a "popular vote"? Or,
  2. Do you want to amend it a bit and go with a more "proportional electoral" system?
  3. Remember that an amendment has to be approved by 37 states (3/4 of 50...), so how will you make your amendment appeal to 37 of our 50 states?
As the "acting president" of this activity, I will constantly amend your amendment in order to get it to pass. You have to start with:
  1. the proposed amendment
  2. the necessity of this amendment
  3. when, and how, you will apply this new amendment. Election 2016? A "trial election"? A "permanent" election?
***Keep in mind, the doubters and the critics will be the most vocal. Americans don't like to change their Constitution! We've only done it 27 times in 225 years! So you're really gonna have to try hard to get this approved!

Use the provided template to get started...

Part II: Predict It!

Even though we don't even know who'll run for president in Election 2016, we can pretty much predict the winner, based on the Electoral "leanings" of the states. 

For this activity, you'll access a few sites to start:
  1. Click here to access the approval ratings of Obama, by state. This will help you predict which of these states is likely to "stay" Democrat in the next election, and which will "switch".
  2. Click here to access the latest unemployment numbers. The strength of the economy is a big indicator on how people will vote. Think of it this way: even if you hated the current president, but your personal finances were the best they've been in years...wouldn't you want him and his party to stay in power for your, and your family's, benefit??
  3. Lastly, click here to access your interactive Election map. You can see how the states voted in Election 2012 and click on the states to see the colors change and see the sliding scale of electoral votes at the bottom. This will help you tally your new electoral votes
  4. When you're done, click here to access, what NBC News believes to be, the battleground states for Election 2016. These "battleground states" are also known as "swing states" - states that could go either way in the next election. ONLY DO THIS WHEN YOU'RE DONE!!! Did your "flip" states match up with NBC's predictions?

Your job is the predict the Election of 2016, based on the stats you find in these links! Have fun!