The 2000 US presidential election between Al Gore and George W. Bush has been the most intriguing and controversial in American history. Using the Florida ballot data, Wu showed that the 2000 election result could have been reversed had the "butterfly ballot effect" been eliminated. Through a combinatorial approach, Harger concluded that…

Researchers have been studying children's knowledge, thinking, and attitudes about government for several decades. However, the studies focusing on elementary students, and especially primary students, have little or nothing to say about children's ideas about democracy or democratic government. That is because children at these ages have not yet…

Levy-election results frequently mean the difference between the curtailment or expansion of educational services. This paper presents results of a study that explored the feasibility of using exit polling as an alternative way to assess voter attitudes in an urban school-district levy election. Background information is provided on two levy…

This user guide is part of a multimedia unit using an interdisciplinary approach with hands-on learning to motivate children to participate actively in their schools and local communities, and to experience the democratic process. This unit focuses on the concept of laws helping people to live together and how people help make the laws. Unit parts…

This user guide is part of a multimedia unit using an interdisciplinary approach with hands-on learning to motivate children to participate actively in their schools and local communities, and to experience the democratic process. This unit focuses on the meaning of the words in the Pledge of Allegiance. Unit parts include: (1) video preview; (2)…

This biography for younger readers recounts the life of Fannie Lou Hamer, one of the first black organizers of voter registration in Mississippi. The book presents an overview of the civil rights movement while describing Hamer's life in Mississippi, her involvement in voter rights in 1962 at the age of 45, and her efforts as a civil rights…

In 1917, the Leslie Bureau of Suffrage Education was created in New York. The Bureau was to be the news purveyor, publicity expert, and propaganda carrier, disseminating suffrage material through every available avenue of publicity. One of its departments, the Department of Editorial Correspondence, was chaired by Ida Husted Harper. Of her 66…

Areas of behavioral and social science research that have achieved significant breakthroughs in knowledge or application or that show future promise of achieving such breakthroughs are discussed in 12 papers. For example, the paper on formal demography shows how mathematical or statistical techniques can be used to explain and predict change in…

Research indicates that the media play a role in shaping the information that voters have about election options. Knowledge of those options has been related to actual vote, but has not been shown to be strongly related to uncertainty. Uncertainty, however, does seem to motivate voters to engage in communication activities, some of which may…

In this article author explored our freedoms and with hypothetical cases illustrated how the freedoms can be granted or denied based on an interpretation of the Bill of Rights. (Author/RK)

Secondary students learn about the process of becoming President of the United States in this social studies unit. The unit traces the steps that a fictional candidate takes from the Presidential primaries through National Party Conventions and election campaigns, to the Presidential office in the White House. A candidate proceeds through the…

This address to the morning session of the Southern Policy Conference on the Voting Rights Act of 1965 puts the Act in an historical perspective in which its importance is clearly perceived; also includes is a discussion of the address by Nicholas Katzenbach, Vernon Jordan, James P. Turner, and George H. Esser, persons who either were involved in…

Discusses the earth science concepts which an informed voter should know in order to responsibly vote on ecologically-oriented issues, such as land use planning, mining exploration, and resources management. (MLH)

KEY PROVISIONS OF THE 1964 CIVIL RIGHTS BILL ARE EXPLAINED AND TYPICAL QUESTIONS ASKED ABOUT IT ARE ANSWERED. THE MAJOR PROVISIONS OF THE BILL ARE MEANT TO ASSURE ALL CITIZENS, REGARDLESS OF RACE, COLOR, RELIGION OR NATIONAL ORIGIN, THEIR EQUAL RIGHTS IN VOTING, PUBLIC ACCOMODATIONS, EDUCATION, FEDERALLY ASSISTED PROGRAMS, AND EMPLOYMENT. THE…

This manual has been designed by the Bureau of Continuing Education Curriculum Development of the New York State Department of Education to provide teachers with suggested lesson plans in practical government. Each lesson contains background materials for the teacher, offering specific information on the subject of the lesson plans, aims of the…