U.S. Constitution, Amendment XXVI: Passed by Congress March 23, 1971. Ratified July 1, 1971.
Section 1.The right of citizens of the United States, who are eighteen years of age or older, to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of age.
Section 2.The Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.
Today is Constitution Day -- a day that commemorates the formation and signing of the U.S. Constitution and reminds all of us of our rights and responsibilities as citizens of the United States -- which includes the right to participate in the democratic process.
This is also a great day to launch your Play the Election unit (and demonstrated by the number of registrations we've had today, it seems you agree!) We thought we'd help you out with a few tips on things to check out first:
The Electoral Map provides a variety of election related information:
- Current Polls: See current polling data for all 50 states. Click the individual state for a breakdown. Data is updated on a daily basis. States shaded are shaded in gray if polling numbers for the top candidates are within 5% of each other, if a candidate has more than a 5% lead, the state will be shaded based on the political party color
- Past Election Results: View electoral college and popular vote data for each presidential election between 1960 and today.
- Census Data – Click on an individual state to see interesting statistics for that state from the latest census.
- Election News – Current news articles related to the Election are updated on a daily basis.
You Decide - Play the Election enables students to make their electoral predictions for each state and to compare their selections vs. their class and students across the country. You can use these options to see different selection groups and how they affect the Electoral Map.
- Load My Map – Displays your saved map selections (requires login).
- Current Polls – Loads the map based on current polling data. This will show how the election results would go if the candidate with top polling numbers in each state were to win the electoral votes for that state.
- Clean Slate – No selections will be automatically filled in. This is a good option to use if you’d like to start over and enter brand new selections.
- All Users – This loads the map based on the most popular selections for each state from all students registered for Play the Election.
- My Class – This loads the map based on the most popular selections for each state from all the students in your class (requires login).
Games Central: Check out these games and interactives for a deeper dive into battleground states and key issues.
Levels: Based on their participation, students will rise to different levels in their Play the Election classroom. Beginning with ‘citizen’ and moving up the ranks, the students making the most electoral map and game predictions and comments will become President of their class.
