Teaching Students About the Electoral College

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This is the social studies teacher podcast, a show for busy elementary teachers looking for fun and engaging ways to easily add social studies into their classroom schedule without feeling overwhelmed or pressed for time. I'm Kirsten of the Southern teach, an educator and mom who is passionate about all things social studies. I love sharing ideas and strategies that are low prep and easy to implement. So let's dive in together.

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So going into the Electoral College, this is a very complex system that can be tricky to explain to students, but understanding this unique aspect of American democracy is so essential for fostering informed citizens, not just younger students who are not able to vote yet, but also just in general, the public and adults, anybody who's capable of voting. So let's talk about what the electoral college is. Every four years, American citizens cast their votes for president and vice president. But here's where it gets a little bit interesting. Those votes known as a popular vote don't directly elect the president. Instead, they determine who the 538 members of the Electoral College will be, and it's these electors who will ultimately elect the president and the vice president. The electoral college is organized by states. Each state gets a certain number of electors, which equals its number of senators, always two and representatives, which is based off of population. For example, a large state like California has 54 electors, while a smaller state like Wyoming has just three. They've got their two senators and the one representative. Washington, DC also has three electors. When citizens are voting, they are actually voting for a slate of electors chosen by their preferred political party. In most states, the party that wins the majority of the popular vote sends all its electors to vote in the electoral college. So if one state decides this, maybe it's Republican. Most of the popular vote is Republican. All the electors will vote in the Electoral College will be the Republican vote. Similarly with the Democrats. If most of the popular vote is democratic, that will go all of the electoral votes will go to the Democratic ticket. These electors then cast their votes for the President and Vice President, the candidates who receive the majority of electoral votes win the election.

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So to conclude, all of this information, hopefully it was beneficial and helpful for you to understand the Electoral College. Teaching about the Electoral College to upper elementary students is rewarding, a little bit challenging, but still rewarding. But when you're using visual aids, you're simplifying the concept engaging students with interactive simulations, and also discussing real life examples you can help your students grasp this important aspect of American democracy. Understanding the electoral college not only helps students learn about the election process, but it also encourages critical thinking about the fairness and effectiveness of this system. Something I mentioned in a previous episode about understanding like the presidential election in general, I shared with you there's a resource you can do like or an activity you can do where on the day of the election, or on the night of the election, they take a blank map home, and they're coloring in which states are red, which states are blue, which, you know, basically they can add up the number of electoral votes that that state. So that kind of helps them understand in real time. Okay, why is this person winning more states, but they're not getting as many electoral votes. Well, even though the state looks really big like Wyoming or Colorado or Idaho, the population is smaller in those types of states, whereas you might have smaller states that are more densely populated, like Virginia or Maryland or Massachusetts, those states in the Northeast that are more densely populated are going to have more electoral votes. So just making sure they know it's not just about how big a state is by area. It's basically based off of population, and that determines how many electoral votes they get, and that kind of adds in towards the road to 270 but I hope this is helpful for you, and it gets your brain thinking of ideas during this year's election. I hope you have a great rest of your day, and I will talk to you again soon.

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