Does your vote really count? This activity helps young voters learn about the electoral college through a TED talk, a helpful handout, discussion prompts, and then a role-playing activity that has participants simulating an election on a small scale so they really see the process in action. Finally, class members break into committees to evaluate the merits of the electoral college system and decide for themselves whether or not to keep the college.

Concepts

the electoral college, the electoral process, the electoral vote, elections, the united states government, north carolina

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Additional Tags

social studies

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Instructional Ideas

• While some focus is given to North Carolina in the lesson, the activities can be easily adapted to your state to make it more interesting for class members
• Expand by having scholars investigate other possible voting methods (direct, run-off) or learning about the election process in other modern democracies

Classroom Considerations

• Requires Internet access to watch the TED talk

Pros

• The role-playing component fosters deeper understanding of the electoral system
• Makes accessible an issue that is often shrouded in misconceptions and secrecy

Cons

• While easily remedied, the resource hasn't been updated to reflect the recent 2016 election