Ch 6 Test

1.  Provide a paragraph on an important issue of your choice from Section 1:
I think an important issue of Section 1 is the five stages of expanding suffrage.  In the beginning only white males of certain religious belief.  The first stage was that religious qualifications disappeared.  Then citizens weren't supposed to be denied the right to vote because of race or color, but there were other ways African Americans were kept from voting.  Third women were allowed to vote, and then African Americans were given a full role in the electoral process in all states.  And lastly, no state can set the minimum voting age at more than 18.

2.  Provide a paragraph on an important issue of your choice from Section 2:
An important issue in Section 2 was voting registration.  It is an important issue because it is what keeps voting organized and fair.  Registration is a porcedure of voter identification intended to prevent fraudulent voting.  All States except North Dakota use voting registration.  It is also useful to have poll books to keep track of qualified voters in each precinct, and they need to be purged every few years to eliminate people who are no longer able to vote.

3.  Provide a paragraph on an important issue of your choice from Section 3:
I think that a very important issue from Section 3 is the Voting Rights Act of 1965.  This act applied to all elections held anywhere in this country.  It made it so African Americans could vote no matter what.  It eliminated poll taxes and literacy tests.  It also gave the federal government more control to oversee the voting processes.

4.  Provide a paragraph on an important issue of your choice from Section 4:
An important issue in Section 4 is the problem of nonvoters.  In ancient Athens idiots were citizens who did not vote or take part in public life.  Well many Americans don't vote.  There are lower numbers in off-year elections.  Many people who do not vote, can't.  They are resident aliens who are not allowed to vote.  There are so many people who just don't vote because they think their vote doesn't matter, but it actually does.

5. Explain voter apathy and what can be done to help it:
Voter apathy is the problem of many eligible voters that don't vote.  Our country has the lowest rate of voter participation of any democracy in the world.  Many people don't vote because they never have, and their parents never did.  They are teaching their children that voting doesn't matter.  But what if everyone thought this way, then no one would vote.  I think that in school we need to teach kids from a young age how much their vote matters.  Show them the consiquences of everyone not voting and what our country could turn into.

6. Explain the qualifications for registering to vote:
Every State has qualifications to vote.  One is citizenship, aliens are denied the right to vote in the United States.  The Constitution doesn't say that they can't vote, so any State could allow them to at any point.  Another qualification is residence.  In order to vote, you need to be a legal resident of the State in which you wish to vote in.  The third qualification is age.  The minimum age for voting can not be any mor than 18.  Another qualification in all States except North Dakota is voting registration.

Political Parties

Using the Internet, research for a minimum of 15mins- the history of the two major political parties in our government.
Report your findings for both the Republicans and the Democrats.
Then share which party you see yourself supporting in the past, present and future and why you feel you support that party or parties.
When finished you should have around 3-4 paragraphs.

The Democratic party was started many years ago.  Thomas Jefferson started the first political party because he thought that the federal government was having too much power.  It became known as the Democratic party after Andrew Jackson became president.  The Democratic convention is the longest running political organization in the world.  The symbol of the donkey has become the "mascot" of the Democratic party.

The Republican party was started because of the conflicts about slavery spreading to the western territories.  The Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 split the two major parties of the time, Democrats and Whigs.  There were conventions held to protest the Nebraska act and free soldiers, democrats, and whigs attended.  They became the Republican party because they said they were decendents of Thomas Jefferson's Democratic-Republican party.  The Republican party is also known as the Grand Old Party or GOP.

From what I have seen and reseached I think right now I would be considered a Republican.  I based this on issues that matter to me like abortion.  Most Republicans are opposed to abortion and I agree with that.  I don't know much about the money issues yet and will base my decision in the future on what I learn.  So I think my ideas could change as I get older and more knowledgable.

Election Results Due Friday Nov 5th Your blog

Take 15mins and look at the following sites and find election results.
http://foxnews.com/
http://cnn.com/
http://sdpb.org/
http://keloland.com/

Then give your view on the national results and the local results.  Both the candidates and the initiative measures.

Two paragraphs minimum.

This years elections were all about balancing power in Washington.  I found out that now after elections there are more Republicans than Democrats in the US House, and it is almost equal in the US Senate.  Also when I looked at an election map it shows that most states were won over by the Republicans.  I agree that our country needs to be balanced.  If one party is making a bad decision we now have the right amount of the other party to stop it and discuss other plans.

Our state voted in all Republicans this election.  I think by electing Noem as our Congress woman it shows that our state wants change.  Also I think that by passing the smoking ban it shows how many people in our state are or want to not smoke.  Many businesses fear the smoking ban will hurt their business but I disagree.  I don't see why people would stop going out to eat just because they can't smoke there.  Now that everywhere is no smoking they will probably draw more customers because they won't leave smelling like smoke. 

I also saw that voting turnout was low.  It is most likely because people didn't think this was a important election, but in fact it was.  It decided who would represent our country and make decisions about taxes and help get our economy back.  There were also important initiatives to vote on like the smoking ban and medical marijuana.