POLS 1101 1st Edition Lecture 12 Outline of Last Lecture I. Political Participation A. ConventionalB. UnconventionalII. VotingA. Why vote?B. Who votes?Outline of Current Lecture I. Vote DeclineII. How do you decide whom to vote for?III. Primary ElectionsIV. Electoral CollegeCurrent LectureI. Vote Decline- Although registration processes have gotten a lot easier now, in some states (like Georgia) registration still involves a lot of work- There has been a decline in political efficacy, meaning that citizens’ faith and trust in thegovernment and their ability to understand issues and policies has declined- There is a more mobile electorate now, people are moving around a lot more, making it hard to keep registering to vote in different statesThese notes represent a detailed interpretation of the professor’s lecture. GradeBuddy is best used as a supplement to your own notes, not as a substitute.- There could be a dissatisfaction with the candidate choices- There are less married people, the age to get married continues to get older and marriedpeople are more likely to voteII. How do you decide whom to vote for?- Economic considerations-how will they help the economy? What changes or policies do they want to enact? Will they hurt or harm the nation?- Personal considerations- how they look, how their plans will affect you personally- Education- Religion- Prospective evaluations (how they will help/be in the future)- Party identification - People tend to change their opinions to fit their own party candidate, instead of changing their party or preferred candidate - Party affiliation is the strongest influence on who people vote for- Retrospective and prospective voting- Candidate characteristics III. Primary Elections - This is how parties pick the strongest candidate to run for president- Ones with the most votes run- Primary elections-standard, private elections- Caucus-public election in which people literally and physically pick a side on who they want to vote for in a large group- Closed primary-you can only vote for candidates in the party you are registered for- There are also semi-closed and open primaries- Primaries are spread out over a year- Votes are given to delegates and then super delegates who attend the national convention- They then make the decision for the presidential candidate IV. Electoral College- A group of people appointed by each state to formally elect the president and the vice president- 538 electoral college votes total- Minimum a state can have is 3 votes- Add number of senators in a state to the number of congressional districts and you get the number of electoral college votes they have- Have to get 270 electoral votes to become president- Should we keep the Electoral College or get rid of