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KQED -Supporting Critical Thinking and Online Discussions with KQED Learnmp4

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TK-5 Instructional Resources (slide deck)

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TK-5 Instructional Resources (slide deck)

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TK-5 Instructional Resources (VIDEO walkthrough)

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TK-5 Instructional Resources (VIDEO walkthrough)

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A video walkthrough of the resources highlighted in the Instructional Resources slide deck

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TK-5 Alignment to Standards (slide deck)

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TK-5 Alignment to Standards (slide deck)

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Slidedeck highlighting the alignment between teaching and learning about elections and CA HSS standards/framework

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This isn't a popularity contest™

It will take 270 electoral votes to win the 2024 presidential election. Click states on this interactive map to create your own 2024 election forecast. Create a specific match-up by clicking the party and/or names near the electoral vote counter. Use the buttons below the map to share your forecast or embed it into a web page.

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270toWin - 2024 Presidential Election Interactive Map

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Create your own forecast for the 2024 presidential election

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Middle and high school students across the U.S. created and published their own audio or video commentaries for a national audience. The student media perspectives shared here showcase evidence-based argument, are rooted in authentic experience, and span the political spectrum.

Discover students' wide-ranging perspectives by location and topic.

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KQED Learn | Let's Talk about Election 2020

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Middle and high school students across the U.S. created and published their own audio or video commentaries for a national audience. The student media perspectives shared here showcase evidence-based argument, are rooted in authentic experience, and span the political spectrum. Discover students' wide-ranging perspectives by location and topic.

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"The idea that you can merchandise candidates for high office like breakfast cereal is the ultimate indignity to the democratic process."
-Democratic candidate Adlai Stevenson, 1956

"Television is no gimmick, and nobody will ever be elected to major office again without presenting themselves well on it."
-Television producer and Nixon campaign consultant Roger Ailes, 1968

In a media-saturated environment in which news, opinions, and entertainment surround us all day on our television sets, computers, and cell phones, the television commercial remains the one area where presidential candidates have complete control over their images. Television commercials use all the tools of fiction filmmaking, including script, visuals, editing, and performance, to distill a candidate's major campaign themes into a few powerful images. Ads elicit emotional reactions, inspiring support for a candidate or raising doubts about his opponent. While commercials reflect the styles and techniques of the times in which they were made, the fundamental strategies and messages have tended to remain the same over the years.

The Living Room Candidate contains more than 300 commercials, from every presidential election since 1952, when Madison Avenue advertising executive Rosser Reeves convinced Dwight Eisenhower that short ads played during such popular TV programs as I Love Lucy would reach more voters than any other form of advertising. This innovation had a permanent effect on the way presidential campaigns are run.

The 2020 edition of The Living Room Candidate has been made possible in part by the National Endowment for the Humanities: Exploring the human endeavor.

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"The idea that you can merchandise candidates for high office like breakfast cereal is the ultimate indignity to the democratic process." -Democratic candidate Adlai Stevenson, 1956 "Television is no gimmick, and nobody will ever be elected to major office again without presenting themselves well on it."

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Established in Article II, Section 1 of the U.S. Constitution, the Electoral College is the formal body which elects the President and Vice President of the United States. Each state has as many "electors" in the Electoral College as it has Representatives and Senators in the United States Congress, and the District of Columbia has three electors. When voters go to the polls in a Presidential election, they actually vote for the slate of electors who have vowed to cast their ballots for that ticket in the Electoral College.

Electors

Most states require that all electoral votes go to the candidate who receives the most votes in that state. After state election officials certify the popular vote of each state, the winning slate of electors meet in the state capital and cast two ballots-one for Vice President and one for President. Electors cannot vote for a Presidential and Vice Presidential candidate who both hail from an elector's home state. For instance, if both candidates come from New York, New York's electors may vote for one of the candidates, but not both. In this hypothetical scenario, however, Delaware's electors may vote for both New York candidates. This requirement is a holdover from early American history when one of the country's major political fault lines divided big states from small states. The founders hoped this rule would prevent the largest states from dominating presidential elections.

Maine and Nebraska employ a "district system" in which two at-large electors vote for the winner of the state's popular vote and one elector votes for the popular winner in each congressional district.

Although it is not unconstitutional for electors to vote for someone other than those to whom they pledged their support, many states, as well as the District of Columbia, "bind" electors to their candidate using oaths and fines. During the nineteenth century, "faithless electors"-those who broke their pledge and voted for someone else-were rare, but not uncommon, particularly when it came to Vice Presidents. In the modern era, faithless electors are rarer still, and have never determined the outcome of a presidential election.

There has been one faithless elector in each of the following elections: 1948, 1956, 1960, 1968, 1972, 1976, and 1988. A blank ballot was cast in 2000. In 2016, seven electors broke with their state on the presidential ballot and six did so on the vice presidential ballot.

Procedure

Since the mid-20th century, Congress has met in a Joint Session every four years on January 6 at 1:00 p.m. to tally votes in the Electoral College. The sitting Vice President presides over the meeting and opens the votes from each state in alphabetical order. He passes the votes to four tellers-two from the House and two from the Senate-who announce the results. House tellers include one Representative from each party and are appointed by the Speaker. At the end of the count, the Vice President then announces the name of the next President.

With the ratification of the Twentieth Amendment to the Constitution (and starting with the 75th Congress in 1937), the electoral votes are counted before the newly sworn-in Congress, elected the previous November.

The date of the count was changed in 1957, 1985, 1989, 1997, 2009, and 2013. Sitting Vice Presidents John C. Breckinridge (1861), Richard Nixon (1961), and Al Gore (2001) all announced that they had lost their own bid for the Presidency.

Objections

Since 1887, 3 U.S.C. 15 has set the method for objections by Members of Congress to electoral votes. During the Joint Session, lawmakers may object to individual electoral votes or to state returns as a whole. An objection must be declared in writing and signed by at least one Representative and one Senator. In the case of an objection, the Joint Session recesses and each chamber considers the objection separately for no more than two hours; each Member may speak for five minutes or less. After each house votes on whether to accept the objection, the Joint Session reconvenes and both chambers disclose their decisions. If both chambers agree to the objection, the electoral votes in question are not counted. If either chamber opposes the objection, the votes are counted.

Objections to the Electoral College votes were recorded in 1969, 2005, and 2021. In all cases, the House and Senate rejected the objections and the votes in question were counted.

Amending the Process

Originally, the Electoral College provided the Constitutional Convention with a compromise between two main proposals: the popular election of the President and the election of the President by Congress.

Prior to 1804, electors made no distinction between candidates when voting for president and vice president; the candidate with the majority of votes became President and the candidate with the second-most votes became Vice President. The Twelfth Amendment-proposed in 1803 and ratified in 1804-changed that original process, requiring electors to separate their votes and denote who they voted for as President and Vice President. See Electoral College and Indecisive Elections for more information.

The District of Columbia has had three electors since the Twenty-third Amendment was ratified in 1961.

There have been other attempts to change the system, particularly after cases in which a candidate wins the popular vote, but loses in the Electoral College.

Five times a candidate has won the popular vote and lost the election. Andrew Jackson in 1824 (to John Quincy Adams); Samuel Tilden in 1876 (to Rutherford B. Hayes); Grover Cleveland in 1888 (to Benjamin Harrison); Al Gore in 2000 (to George W. Bush); Hillary Clinton in 2016 (to Donald J. Trump).

The closest Congress has come to amending the Electoral College since 1804 was during the 91st Congress (1969-1971) when the House passed H.J. Res. 681 which would have eliminated the Electoral College altogether and replaced it with the direct election of a President and Vice President (and a run off if no candidate received more than 40 percent of the vote). The resolution cleared the House 338 to 70, but failed to pass the Senate.

Contingent Elections

In the case of an Electoral College deadlock or if no candidate receives the majority of votes, a "contingent election" is held. The election of the President goes to the House of Representatives. Each state delegation casts a single vote for one of the top three contenders from the initial election to determine a winner.

Only two Presidential elections (1800 and 1824) have been decided in the House.

Though not officially a contingent election, in 1876, South Carolina, Florida, and Louisiana submitted certificates of elections for both candidates. A bipartisan commission of Representatives, Senators, and Supreme Court Justices, reviewed the ballots and awarded all three state's electoral votes to Rutherford B. Hayes of Ohio, who won the presidency by a single electoral vote.

See Electoral College and Indecisive Elections for more information on Contingent Elections.

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Electoral College Fast Facts | US House of Representatives: History, Art & Archives

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Established in Article II, Section 1 of the U.S. Constitution, the Electoral College is the formal body which elects the President and Vice President of the United States. Each state has as many "electors" in the Electoral College as it has Representatives and Senators in the United States Congress, and the District of Columbia has three electors.

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The Electoral College is a process, not a place. The Founding Fathers established it in the Constitution, in part, as a compromise between the election of the President by a vote in Congress and election of the President by a popular vote of qualified citizens.

What is the process?

The Electoral College process consists of the selection of the electors, the meeting of the electors where they vote for President and Vice President, and the counting of the electoral votes by Congress.

How many electors are there? How are they distributed among the States?

The Electoral College consists of 538 electors. A majority of 270 electoral votes is required to elect the President. Your State has the same number of electors as it does Members in its Congressional delegation: one for each Member in the House of Representatives plus two Senators. Read more about the allocation of electoral votes.

The District of Columbia is allocated 3 electors and treated like a State for purposes of the Electoral College under the 23rd Amendment of the Constitution. For this reason, in the following discussion, the word "State" also refers to the District of Columbia and "Executive" to the State Governors and the Mayor of the District of Columbia.

How are my electors chosen? What are their qualifications? How do they decide who to vote for?

Each candidate running for President in your State has their own group of electors (known as a slate). The slates are generally chosen by the candidate's political party in your State, but State laws vary on how the electors are selected and what their responsibilities are. Read more about the qualifications of the electors and restrictions on who the electors may vote for.

What happens in the general election? Why should I vote?

The general election is held every four years on the Tuesday after the first Monday in November. When you vote for a Presidential candidate you are actually voting for your candidate's preferred electors. Learn more about voting for the electors.

Most States have a "winner-take-all" system that awards all electors to the Presidential candidate who wins the State's popular vote. However, Maine and Nebraska each have a variation of "proportional representation." Read more about the allocation of electors among the States.

What happens after the general election?

After the general election, your State's Executive prepares a Certificate of Ascertainment listing the names of all the individuals on the slates for each candidate. The Certificate of Ascertainment also lists the number of votes each individual received and shows which individuals were appointed as your State's electors. Your State's Certificate of Ascertainment is sent to NARA as part of the official records of the Presidential election.

The meeting of the electors takes place on the first Tuesday after the second Wednesday in December after the general election. The electors meet in their respective States, where they cast their votes for President and Vice President on separate ballots. Your State's electors' votes are recorded on a Certificate of Vote, which is prepared at the meeting by the electors. Your State's Certificate of Vote is sent to Congress, where the votes are counted, and to NARA, as part of the official records of the Presidential election.

Each State's electoral votes are counted in a joint session of Congress on the 6th of January in the year following the meeting of the electors. Members of the House and Senate meet in the House Chamber to conduct the official count of electoral votes. The Vice President of the United States, as President of the Senate, presides over the count in a strictly ministerial manner and announces the results of the vote. The President of the Senate then declares which persons, if any, have been elected President and Vice President of the United States.

The President-elect takes the oath of office and is sworn in as President of the United States on January 20th in the year following the general election.

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The Electoral College is a process, not a place. The Founding Fathers established it in the Constitution, in part, as a compromise between the election of the President by a vote in Congress and election of the President by a popular vote of qualified citizens. What is the process? The Electoral Col…

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PBS Electoral Decoder | PBS LearningMedia

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Use this cartogram to explore all 59 past presidential elections from 1789-2020. Learn about the significance of the Electoral College by comparing the map and the electoral cartogram. Delve further into history by reading a brief overview and looking at key events for every past election.

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Beginning Sept. 22 and running through Oct. 30, we're inviting teenagers (13 and up) to have productive, respectful conversations about some of the issues dividing us this election season.

Four years ago we ran an experiment we called our Civil Conversation Challenge. We invited teenagers to come to our site and, via the comments section, have productive and respectful conversations around some of the issues at the center of that year's election - immigration, gun control, climate change, race and gender, and more. We loved the results.

By popular request, we're bringing it back for 2020, this time with some new features. Our overall focus, though, will be the same: What we'll be looking for are not so much excellent posts by individual students, but civil, productive discussions between students. Sometime after the contest ends, we'll be calling out favorite conversations and notable individual and school participation, just as we did in 2016.

Back then, we explained our rationale for the contest this way:

For much of this year we've been thinking about what more we could do on this site to help students grapple with both the issues of Election 2016 and the classroom challenges of a race marked by extreme rhetoric and deep partisan divide.

Four years later, the country's partisan divide is even deeper, and the classroom challenges are unprecedented.

For many teachers, meeting with students to have in-person "civil conversations" at all this fall will be impossible. At the same time, since 2016 the very notion that "civil conversation" works for all of us has been called into question by those who say that, without equity, "civility" can " feel like an effort to stifle people's outrage over injustice or hate." And, of course, four years later all of us, not just students, are worn out by a fog of news - and by having to constantly figure which of it is true, false or spin.

None of this is easy, but we hope our challenge can still help. We hope the online forums we'll begin publishing on Sept. 22 will be welcoming, equitable places for students all over to practice the skills of respectful, informed conversation across ideological and demographic divides. In fact, we hope that, at a time when many teenagers are isolated, encouraging them to not only to post their thoughts but also to read and respond to the thoughts of others might make them feel a little more connected. To make that easier, we're beginning with a forum in which they're invited to introduce themselves and think about how their political beliefs are grounded in who they are.

For teachers, we hope this challenge is fairly easy to integrate into the curriculum as you struggle to adapt to new and ever-changing circumstances - and we hope a related Reader Idea about using it in the context of media literacy can help cut through the noise.

Here's everything you need to know. As always, post any questions you may have in the comments, or write to us at LNFeedback@nytimes.com. We will update this post as needed to provide more explanation as we go. We'll also link below to all the Student Opinion forums as each publishes this week.

Here's what you need to know:

A new forum for this challenge will publish each school day starting Sept. 22, and you can find the forums all in our Student Opinion column, as well as linked below as they publish.

Any teenager (13 and up) is welcome to respond to any or all of these, simply by visiting a forum or forums and submitting a comment on it, anytime between Sept. 22 and Oct. 30.

We encourage students not only to submit their own thoughts, but also to comment on, and "recommend," the thoughts of others.
Here is what we'll be asking.

If you're interested, you can find more about how and why we chose these topics in our FAQ, below.
1. Students can respond to any or all of the forums, as often as they like through Oct. 30. 2. When responding, students should not only post their own comments, but should also read and respond to the work of others.
For this challenge, we are much less interested in individual posts than we are in the conversations you have about these issues. Please read and respond to the ideas of others, and hit the "recommend" button for anything you particularly like. And don't forget to revisit those posts often to continue any conversations that have started.

We'll be "listening in" as we moderate and looking to find exchanges between students that do all of the following.

3. All submissions must follow Times commenting standards. Please read the full list of commenting standards, but pay special attention to these:

To be approved for publication, your comments should be civil and reflect The New York Times's standards for taste present on NYTimes.com and in The New York Times newspaper. A few things we won't tolerate: name-calling, personal attacks, obscenity, vulgarity, profanity (including expletives and letters followed by dashes), commercial promotion, impersonations, incoherence, and SHOUTING.

We only accept comments written in English; foreign language comments will be rejected.

While we encourage students to post their genuine questions and concerns, keep in mind that many of the topics we're asking you to discuss are sensitive. Please enter the conversation with respect for others in it.

4. Students should try to advance the conversation about an issue somehow, whether introducing a new idea or perspective, asking useful questions, making connections to other issues, reflecting back to the writer what you understand about his or her post, finding themes or commonalities among comments, presenting new evidence, or anything else.

5. Submissions should be grounded in fact and buttressed by reliable sources. This is not to say that everything you post must be footnoted sentence by sentence, but commenters should provide reliable sources for any controversial claims they make. And, at a time when the reliability of news is more in question than ever, we will reject comments that post incendiary claims without those sources.
6. Submissions should show evidence of "listening" and attempting to understand other points of view.
To better see what we're looking for, check out our reflections on the 2016 winners. Can our 2020 participants do even better?

_________
Some tips and fine points:

Any teenager (13 and up) in the United States and the United Kingdom, and any teenager 16 and older elsewhere in the world, is invited to join the conversation. Though the issues as we present them will be defined by positions taken by candidates in the presidential election, insights from elsewhere in the world are very welcome.

The first time you comment, make sure to check the box saying that you would like to receive an email with a link to your comment when it is published. Though our system does not, unfortunately, let you know when someone replies, if you visit the link to your comment regularly, you can see all the responses.

Feel free to comment, reply, recommend or do any combination of the three as often as you like - within reason, of course. (In other words, we hope you'll chiefly respond on those topics you feel passionate about and weigh in on conversations in which you feel you have something of value to add.)

Video

Arguments don't have to be heated, explosive moments

From The Learning Network
2020: Lesson of the Day: 'Learn to Argue Productively'

In this lesson, which we hope can be a starting point for teachers interested in this contest, students will practice putting six practical tips into action. They will also consider how those tips apply to online disagreements, to teenage "cancel culture," and to questions many have posed about what it means to have a "civil conversation" in the first place.

2020: Reader Idea: News Groups: A Simple but Powerful Media Literacy Idea to Build Community

An English teacher tells how she adapted the structure of book groups to help her students become critical consumers of news - and suggests ways to use News Groups with the Civil Conversation Challenge.

2020: A complete list of all our materials for teaching and learning with Election 2020.

2016: Ideas for Productive Discussion: Reflections on Our Civil Conversation Challenge

Our observations about the best of the conversations submitted to our 2016 Challenge, with notes on what made them work and unedited student examples for each.

2016: Talking Across Divides: 10 Ways to Encourage Civil Classroom Conversation on Difficult Issues.

Teaching activities for each of our 2016 guidelines, taken from The Times and a number of educational organizations.
From Other Educational Organizations
Facing History and Ourselves | Fostering Civil Discourse: How Do We Talk About Issues That Matter?

Facing History has updated this essential guide for 2020. In a related blog post, it explains:

We see "civil discourse" as a tool for deep engagement, a framework that allows us to show up with our mind, heart and conscience to be in dialogue and extend our understanding in connection with others. "Civil discourse" does not mean prioritizing politeness or comfort over getting to the heart of an issue. If we're going to ask students to listen and engage civilly, we have to ensure that the classroom is an equitable space. Our revised guide offers approaches to educator self-reflection on issues of power and privilege, and strategies to intentionally shape classroom environments with equity in mind.

Teaching Tolerance | Speaking Up Without Tearing Down

A veteran human rights educator explains the difference between "calling out" and "calling in," and makes suggestions for how "calling in" might work in the classroom.

Who is eligible to participate?
For this challenge, our guidelines are the same as our daily commenting guidelines. Any teenager (13 and up) in the United States and the United Kingdom, and any teenager 16 and older elsewhere in the world, is invited to join the conversation.

Though the issues as we present them will be defined by positions taken by candidates in the presidential election, insights from elsewhere in the world are very welcome.
How can I find my posts so I can keep up with the conversation - and prove to my teacher I did it?
Make sure to check the box that asks if you would like to be emailed when your comment is published. If you do so, the system will send you a link to your comment, which you can use to show your teacher, your parents, your friends or anyone else. (Please note that you will not get an email until the comment has been approved, which may take longer over weekends.)

You can also use the "View Your Comment" link in your confirmation email to find your published comment and to see if anyone has replied. (Another tip? To prove to your teacher that you did the work, many students simply take screen shots.)
How did you choose these topics?
Back in May, we asked students What Issues in the 2020 Presidential Race Are Most Important to You?, and we collected answers through August. Students were passionate: climate change, health care, gun rights, immigration, the economy, criminal justice, abortion, child sex trafficking, family-separation policies, women's rights and gay rights all came up, most several times over.

We weren't surprised to see that two of the issues we ended up choosing - our national response to Covid-19, and racial justice - were mentioned again and again. A third - student debt, which is part of our forum on education in general - was also mentioned often.

So why did we end up with voting rights as a fourth forum, when it was barely mentioned? Well, because it covers so much that is critical right now to thinking about our democracy and how it works. We thought it was too important not to include.

But, in general, we also decided not to ask about topics where the debate, at least among adults, seems to have hardened into talking points. Instead, we are choosing four issues that are very much alive, in flux and in the news every day as we urgently discuss them ahead of the election.

But, just as it was in 2016, our final forum will be an open one. There you're welcomed and encouraged to post about issues that didn't get mentioned in the previous five forums.
Who will be judging this? How? When will you announce "winners"?
We will judge this challenge the same way we did in 2016, and you can read more about that in our reflections that year.

The Learning Network staff will be reading through all the comments posted, looking for conversations between students - especially students not from the same class or school - that are especially interesting or productive. Sometime in late November or early December, we will call out our favorite conversations, highlighting the work of both individual students and whole schools.

We know this doesn't sound like our other contests, and that's because it's not. It's more of an extension of the daily work we do via our Student Opinion questions. That's partly because we want as many teenagers as possible to participate, and posting a comment is very easy.
Who can I contact if I have questions about this contest or am having issues submitting my entry?
Leave a comment on this post or write to us at LNFeedback@nytimes.com.

QUESTIONS ABOUT TEACHING WITH THIS CONTEST Do my students need a New York Times subscription to get access to these resources?
The New York Times is now available to high school students and teachers across the United States for FREE through Sept. 1, 2021. Learn more and invite your classes here. (Please note that once teachers send an invitation, students will need to accept it to get their free account.)

If your students are not yet in high school and they don't have a subscription, they can get access to Times pieces through The Learning Network. All the activities for students on our site, including mentor texts and writing prompts, plus the Times articles they link to, are free. Students can search for articles using the search tool on our home page (scroll down past the featured articles to the article stream). In the rest of The Times, they can get access to up to five free articles a month.
How do my students prove to me that they entered this contest?
Assuming they have checked the box that asks if they would like to be emailed when their comment is published, your students should receive an email from The Times with the subject heading "Your Comment ..." soon thereafter. They can forward it to you to show their entry has been accepted. Some teachers also have their students take screen shots of the comment as proof that they participated.

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Our 2020 Civil Conversation Challenge for Teenagers

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Beginning Sept. 22 and running through Oct. 30, we're inviting teenagers (13 and up) to have productive, respectful conversations about some of the issues dividing us this election season. Four years ago we ran an experiment we called our Civil Conversation Challenge.

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Students have a lot of power to influence elections! The Students Power Elections resource provides thorough and engaging explanations of voting and participation in the election season. The resource is broken up by topic and guides students to research elections in their state and ways to get involved in movements and ideas they are passionate about. Download and view the Resource Guide for more information about using this resource so your students can power this election.

Thinking about sharing this resource with students? Use this link: http://bit.ly/iCivicsSPE

Explore all of our free election curriculum and teaching resources at our Election Headquarters .

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

Gain practical knowledge about the process of voting in an election

Discover ways to engage in government and politics outside the ballot box

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Students have a lot of power to influence elections! The Students Power Elections resource provides thorough and engaging explanations of voting and participation in the election season. The resource is broken up by topic and guides students to research elections in their state and ways to get involved in movements and ideas they are passionate about.

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Static maps on a page represent political change only with difficulty. Voting America sets American political history in motion. We juxtapose subtle pictures of the ways US voters have cast their ballots in presidential elections during the past two centuries. These animations, depicting more than forty presidential election cycles, reveal much about the gradual evolution and occasional sudden revolutions in American voting across the span of US history.

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Static maps on a page represent political change only with difficulty. Voting America sets American political history in motion. We juxtapose subtle pictures of the ways US voters have cast their ballots in presidential elections during the past two centuries.

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VOTE SAFE with Your Vote-By-Mail Ballot
All California voters will receive a vote-by-mail ballot for the November 3, 2020, General Election.
Voters who can vote by mail will help ensure safe physical distancing at voting locations. County elections officials will begin mailing vote-by-mail ballots to all active registered voters in California by October 5, 2020. Ballots returned by mail must be postmarked by November 3, 2020; ballots returned at a secure ballot drop box must be deposited by 8:00 p.m. on November 3, 2020.
Voting locations will be available in all counties before Election Day.
One or more early voting locations will be available in many counties for at least four days beginning the Saturday before the November 3, 2020, election. Voting locations will offer voter registration, replacement ballots, accessible voting machines, and language assistance.

Election Information

COVID-19 Health and Safety Guidance:

Voter Information

Candidate Information

Helpful Resources

Election Related Advisories to Counties

Registration Statistics

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All California voters will receive a vote-by-mail ballot for the November 3, 2020, General Election. Voters who can vote by mail will help ensure safe physical distancing at voting locations. County elections officials will begin mailing vote-by-mail ballots to all active registered voters in California by October 5, 2020.

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When will I receive my ballot in the mail?

Ballots will be mailed out on October 5th. If you have signed up for BallotTrax/Where's My Ballot, you will receive notification when your ballot is mailed. To sign up to receive those notifications, visit WheresMyBallot.sos.ca.gov.

Will everyone receive a ballot in the mail for the November election?

All active, registered voters will receive a ballot in the mail. People who are not registered or whose registration is inactive due to a need for address confirmation will NOT receive a ballot. If you need to register, you can do so at RegisterToVote.ca.gov. If you want to check your registration status, you can do so at VoterStatus.sos.ca.gov.

How can I return my Vote-by-Mail ballot?

You can return your ballot by mailing it, by using a secure 24/7 ballot drop box, or by dropping it off at any in-person voting location while they are open. The list of ballot drop boxes and in-person voting locations can be found at sonomacounty.ca.gov/where-to-vote. Ballot drop boxes are picked up by Registrar of Voters frequently.

I do not want to vote by mail. Can I vote in person?

Yes. We will have 30 in-person voting locations, open for 4 days. They will be open from 9am to 5pm on Saturday (10/31), Sunday (11/1) and Monday (11/2), and from 7am to 8pm on Election Day (Tuesday, 11/3). We recommend you vote early to avoid lines. This year, any voter can vote at any in-person voting location.

Is voting by mail safe?

Yes. California has a long history of successfully voting by mail, and over 80% of Sonoma County residents already choose to permanently vote by mail. There are a lot of security processes and procedures in place to ensure that only registered voters cast a vote, and that each person can only vote once.

I am worried that the USPS will not deliver my ballot. What should I do?

If you don't want to mail your ballot, you can drop it off at any of our secure 24/7 ballot drop boxes. If you choose to mail your ballot, you can sign up to track it to ensure that it is received and counted at WheresMyBallot.sos.ca.gov. As long as the ballot is postmarked on or before Election Day, we will accept it if it arrives in our office up to 17 days after the election.

I am worried about my signature being accepted on the Vote-by-Mail ballot. What should I do?

The signature on your envelope will be matched to the signature on your latest voter registration, as well as being compared to all previous signatures on file. If you are in doubt about how you signed most recently, you can sign the signature on your Driver's License, as we likely have that signature on file. You can also re-register at RegisterToVote.ca.gov. Re-registering will update your signature with the one on your Driver's License or we will mail you a form to sign. If your signature does not match, our office will mail you a letter giving you the opportunity to correct your signature so your ballot can be counted.

How do I sign up to help with the election?

We have fully staffed all polling locations for the November election. If you would like to be added to the list of back up poll workers, please email ROV-POLLS@sonoma-county.org. Please note that backups may be called as late as Election morning, and should be available to fill in at the last minute if necessary. You can find more information about applying and volunteering as a poll worker on our Poll Worker Information website.

I want to receive a ballot in the mail? How do I sign up?

There is no need to sign up to receive a ballot in the mail for the November election. All active registered voters will be sent a ballot in the mail.

I want my ballot to be in the Election Night results. When do I have to have it turned in?

If we receive your ballot by October 29th, it will be included in the Election Night results. If you turn your ballot in after that date, we may be able to process it before Election Day, but cannot guarantee that.

If I drop my Vote by Mail ballot off at a polling location on Election Day, will it be included in the results released on Election Night?

No. Vote by Mail ballots take time to process, and any VBM received by our office on Election Day will not be processed or counted until after the election.

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When will I receive my ballot in the mail? Ballots will be mailed out on October 5th. If you have signed up for BallotTrax/Where's My Ballot, you will receive notification when your ballot is mailed. To sign up to receive those notifications, visit WheresMyBallot.sos.ca.gov. Will everyone receive a ballot in the mail for the November election?

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Sort Fact from Fiction Online with Lateral Reading

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Media Literacy | The Election Collection | PBS LearningMedia

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Help students identify, analyze, and investigate the news and information they find online with materials about fake news, confirmation bias, and hyperpartisan news.

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Brendan Nyhan, American Political Scientist and Assistant Professor, Dartmouth
Confirmation bias is the idea that we tend to accept information unquestionably when it reinforces some predisposition we have or some existing belief or attitude.

The flip side to that is disconfirmation bias-people tend to be unduly skeptical of information that contradicts some predisposition they have or point of view. We tend to be too accepting of information we want to hear and too critical of information we don't want to hear.

The problem is when it comes to matters of fact where there is a right answer, there is evidence that is overwhelming for one side or the other and yet our predispositions are getting in the way of us getting that information.

Confirmation bias is important because we're often trying to evaluate information and we would like to evaluate it in a way that's accurate, but we also sometimes care about what the outcome is.

We have a preference for who's right and when that preference affects what we believe, we may come to have inaccurate views, we may tend to have a narrow-minded view or a biased view, because our predispositions are influencing our judgments about the world.

Kevin Merida, Managing Editor, The Washington Post (2013-2015)
I think readers are, they're living in a world now where they can go find whatever will confirm their bias. If the Washington Post doesn't report Ferguson the way they want it reported, they can go to a place that feeds their ideology, that feeds their view of the world. And those sites exist, that's why they're in business.

Tom Rosenstiel, Executive Director, American Press Institute
We're in a moment where people are choosing their own media and in politics, national politics, we have a sort of separation. You see more confirmation bias in source selection when it comes to national politics than anywhere else. But actually, moments of crisis like Ferguson and Baltimore and, I shudder to say, the next instance are moments where we open up the aperture just a little bit more and the meaning can change.

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Brendan Nyhan, American Political Scientist and Assistant Professor, Dartmouth Confirmation bias is the idea that we tend to accept information unquestionably when it reinforces some predisposition we have or some existing belief or attitude. The flip side to that is disconfirmation bias-people tend to be unduly skeptical of information that contradicts some predisposition they have or point of view.

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Video of standards/framework alignment read aloud for viewer.

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Vocabulary

abide [uh-bahyd] (verb) to follow or accept something, such as a rule

non-verbal communication [non-vur-buhl kuh-myoo-ni-key-shun] (noun) the use of gestures, postures, eye contact, facial expressions, and conversational distance to convey meaning

verbal communication [vur-buhl kuh-myoo-ni-key-shun] (noun)  the use of words and intonation to convey meaning

Suggested Procedure

1. Inform students that they're going to put together a list of the ways in which they want to be spoken to. Break the class into groups of three or four. Give all students a packet of Post-It notes and instruct them to discuss together the ways they like to be addressed. Every time a student mentions a preference, he or she should write the statement on one of the Post-It notes. At the end, every child should have his or her own stack of Post-Its. If you want to model this activity beforehand, use 8 ½-by-11 sheets of paper and write each statement on one sheet, then tape the sheets to the front board.

To take a positive approach, ask students to identify ways in which they like to be addressed. (It's often counter-productive to start students dialoguing about the ways that others speak to them offensively.) This positive approach sets the right tone in your classroom. It may at first be difficult for students to frame their responses positively. The examples below may help. When students falter, just ask them if they can reframe their statements using positive language. Answers will vary, but these examples will give you enough to get students primed:

"I like it when people use respectful tones with me" instead of "I don't like it when people yell or scream at me."

"I like it when others share the conversation equally" instead of "I don't like it when people dominate what's going on."

"It's nice when classmates just say a simple 'thank you' or 'please' instead of "I hate it when people are rude."

"I appreciate it when people don't use pejoratives or bias language" instead of "I think people who use racist and sexist language are stupid."

2. After students feel they've exhausted their list, have them begin to group statements that seem to go together. You can begin by showing them what to do on the front board with the 8 ½-by-11 sheets of paper. For instance, you may notice that several of the students' statements have to do with non-verbal communication; you can put those in one row. When students know what to do, have them group their statements into rows by simply rearranging their Post-Its.

When they have their statements in rows, ask students to name each row. For instance, as in the example above, a row might be labeled "Non-Verbal Communication."

3. Have students make positive action statements that address the concerns mentioned in each row of Post-It notes. For instance, on the "Non-Verbal Communication" row, students might say, "We will be careful that our faces and bodies match the kind words we want to hear from each other." Write students' action statements on the board.

After their summaries, let each group take one action statement and make a poster of it to hang in the classroom.

Common Core State Standards: W.4, SL.1, SL.4

Extension Activity

Once students have identified and created posters of these positive principles of speaking with each other, have them make it contractual. Ask each student to come up and sign the posters with their names, agreeing that they are making a contract with others to abide by these rules of speaking with good intent.

As all educators know, ways of speaking to each other in classrooms need to be revisited often. As an extension activity, have students reflect on whether they are abiding by the principles they've listed. Ask students: "Why or why not? What seems difficult about it?"

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Speaking Kindness in Democratic Classrooms

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For educators who hope to create a democratic classroom, one of the first steps is to co-create classroom rules with students. This lesson invites students to reflect on student-to-student verbal interactions and develop a set of guidelines for speaking to each other with kindness and respect.

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Restorative Circles and the 2020 Election. - Erika Barrishmp4

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Learning for Justice provides free resources to educators—teachers, administrators, counselors and other practitioners—who work with children from kindergarten through high school.

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Is a 6th grader chanting "Build a Wall" in his classroom a political statement or a deliberate act to intimidate other students in the class? Rosalind Wiseman talks about effective neutrality in facilitating student discussions.