Introduction

Enduring Knowledge: Citizens impact policies of government, local, state and national, through elections by choosing a candidate and a party to represent them.

Complete the 7.03 Elections in America as you go through the lesson. You will submit your completed work at the end of the lesson.

Fair elections are an important part of any democracy. Through elections, power is transferred peacefully from one person to another and from one party to another. Elections allow citizens to impact future policies of the government at the local, state, and federal levels.

Analyze the political cartoon. The donkey and elephant are obviously representing candidates from the two major political parties, facing each other in an election campaign. Which party is represented by the donkey? Which party is represented by the elephant? Roll over the image to learn more about the mascots for each of the two major political parties and ways to remember which party they represent.

In this lesson, you will examine the election process to learn how the Constitution allows "We the People" to elect our representatives through fair elections, which are an essential part of our democracy.

Open Political cartoon in a new tab | Political cartoon text version

The donkey and the elephant are the symbols of the Democratic and Republican parties.

Lesson Objectives

Following successful completion of this lesson, students will be able to:

  • identify the different types of elections.
  • describe the election process.
  • summarize the organization, role, and constituency of political parties.

The above objectives correspond with the Alabama Course of Study: Government objective(s): 7.

This lesson incorporates the following Literacy Standards: R1, R2, R4, R7, W1, W3, W4, W8, and W9.
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