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Voting Rights Evaluation Project: Home

A collection of resources for 8th graders evaluating voting rights in various states.

Why Voting Rights Matter

8th grade Social Studies students, you have been contacted by the Federal Bureau of Elections Management. They have heard that due to your studies in your Civics class, you are now qualified to grade the fifty states of the United States (plus the District of Columbia) on how well they each support the right and freedom to vote. Your job will be to grade each state on a number of categories--use the resources linked on this guide to complete your research and assign your grades.  Click here to see your full project instructions.

Voter Turnout and Registration Stats

Voter Turnout By State (Source: Fox10 News, Phoenix, AZ)

The Changing Racial and Ethnic Composition of the U.S. Electorate (Source: Pew Research Center)

Voting and Voter Registration by Race/Ethnicity (Source: Kaiser Family Foundation)

Voting for Ex-Offenders

   

Britannica ProCon.org offers balanced, expert-authored arguments for and against each side of controversial issues, "from gun control, immigration, and the Electoral College to vaping, mandatory school uniforms, and animal dissection as part of school experiments. Schools and teachers in all 50 U.S. states and 94 countries have used the site."   This link provides info about voting rights for people with felony convictions in each state.

 

Founded in 2005, Nonprofit VOTE partners with America’s nonprofits to help the people they serve participate and vote.  They aim to provide nonpartisan resources to help nonprofits integrate voter engagement into their ongoing activities and services. Click here to access their research on voting rights for voting-age people with felony convictions.

 

More helpful sites

 

USAGov's mission is to make it easier for everyone to find and understand the government services and information they need. This website is a clearinghouse for information about all elections, and includes voter guides and sample ballots, which can be accessed in multiple languages.  Search for ballots from any state, and see information about the voting process AND candidates running for office.

How Easy Is It to Vote in the United States?

Northern Illinois University's NEWSROOM provides information like the graphics above for aspiring journalists and political analysts.  Find the above images, along with text and analysis, here.  Be sure to read carefully to learn about their COVI (Cost of Voting Index)--and follow links to their updated, corrected data from the site!

Key Terms for Studying Voting Stats

Eligible voters refer to persons ages 18 and older who are U.S. citizens. They make up the voting-eligible population or electorate. The terms eligible votersvoting eligiblethe electorate and voters are used interchangeably in this report.

Registered voters are eligible voters who have completed all the documentations necessary to vote in an upcoming election.

Voter turnout refers to the number of people who say they voted in a given election.

Voter turnout rate refers to the share of eligible voters who say they voted in a given election.

Naturalized citizens are lawful permanent residents who have fulfilled the length of stay and other requirements to become U.S. citizens and who have taken the oath of citizenship.

The terms Latino and Hispanic are used interchangeably in this report. Hispanics are of any race.

References to AsiansBlacks and Whites are single-race and refer to the non-Hispanic components of those populations.

Battleground states include Arizona, Florida, Michigan, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. These states were identified by Pew Research Center using ratings from a variety of sources, see the methodology for more details.

Source:  Pew Research Center, 9/23/20

Helpful Research Links

Don't forget to cite!

All sources linked in this guide can be cited using the GOOGLE CITATIONS tool on your Google Docs.  Prepare a Works Cited list by following the simple steps on this Google Doc.

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