NOMINATING THE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE 2016 GAMEBackground:When nominating presidential candidates for office, these candidates must run against candidates in their own party first. They must run against each other in each state starting with Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina, and Nevada. Each state Election is spaced out every 5-10 days. Some states have the same Election Day. Typically, the candidate who wins these four states have the momentum to win most of the rest of the states. States like Iowa and Nevada use caucuses to nominate their candidates, while the voters at the ballot box in states like New Hampshire and South Carolina nominate their candidates. Each state has different rules. In these first four states, the percentage of votes that candidates get are divided up using delegates. Delegates are awarded to candidates based on the proportion of how many votes they got. For example, if a state like Wyoming has 10 delegates to award to delegates, the candidate who gets 50% of the votes gets 5 delegates. Other states have a winner-takes-all approach where if they get the most votes in the state, they are awarded all the delegates. Also, in caucus states, party leaders in each county meet in one location to decide their candidate. In primary states, closed primaries only allow voters of one party to vote for that party alone. In open primary states, independent voters are allowed to vote for a Republican or Democratic candidate or a Democratic voter can vote for any Republican candidate (they are only allowed to vote once so it is their choice, which primary they want to vote in or else they engage in voter fraud). Again, each state is different. The candidate with the most delegates in all 50 states win.Note: Although California has the most delegates to award, it is one of the last primary states in the country. Because California is so large, it is more expensive for the state to hold a primary Election. Since it is one of the last states to vote, the primary races are usually decided by then, which makes the California Primary Election cheaper to manage as there are less candidates on the ballot and less campaigning going on. Presidential Candidates:Republican Party Mitt Romney, Newt Gingrich, Ron Paul, Herman Cain Democratic Party Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, John Edwards, Joe Biden.

Directions for Day 1:1. The class will be randomly put into groups of four students out of 8 groups. 2. Every group will represent either Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina, or Nevada. Two groups each will represent one of these states. For groups who share the same state, they will either be part of the Republican Party or Democratic Party. Each group will write their names on the board under each state/party.3. Each individual can choose one of the four presidential candidates of their own party to research. If you are part of the Iowa and Nevada caucus groups, each student is considered a party leader. For students in the NH and SC primary groups, you are simply a voter, while your group members are considered adults in your own family. Since NH is an open primary, two members in the NH Republican group will be given a choice to choose any of the Democratic candidates. Two members in the NH Democratic group will be given a choice to choose any of the Republicans candidates. (SC is a closed primary so this cannot be done there) So in one NH group, the family of four could be split between two Democrats and two Republicans. 4. For this assignment, your candidate is the candidates you are required to support. 5. You are in charge of researching your own candidate using the Tablets in the room. 6. You are required to write two to three paragraphs listing reasons you support your candidate. The reasons you support this candidate has to deal with their policy positions such as: foreign policy, domestic policy, and/or social policy. You can also support them based on personality reasons.7. Any unfinished work is homework.

Directions for Day 2: 1. Students will get into their groups of four once again. 2. Each student will make their case to the group on why their candidate is the best person to be President. Each student must speak for at least 3 minutes. If you did not do the work, your candidate is disqualified in that group and you get no points for the activity. 3. Once everyone has made their case, students can decide to change their support of a candidate to another candidate if they felt their peer was more convincing than their own candidate. 4. A candidate who has the most votes in a group, wins that caucus or primary. If there is a four way tie in that group, a student must volunteer to support another candidate. 5. Students will nominate their presidential candidate by announcing the winner and vote total of each group: starting with the Iowa Caucus groups that are worth 54 delegates, then the New Hampshire primary groups worth 32 delegates, then the South Carolina groups worth 57 delegates, and finally the Nevada Caucuses worth 39 delegates. 6. The teacher will tally up the points (delegates) on the board.7. After the four states have voted, the Republican and Democratic candidates who get the most delegates are officially nominated as the presidential candidate for that party.8. Next, the two presidential candidates must speak at their party national convention that takes place a month before Election Day. One volunteer from each political party who initially supported that candidate will now each make a 3-4 minute speech in front of the class. The two volunteers will now pretend that they are either a Republican candidate speaking a Republican National Convention, or a Democratic candidates speaking at a Democratic National Convention. The class must cheer after each speech as your role is now national delegates from all 50 states.9. Finally, the class will vote by secret ballot which of the two candidates they preferred. 10. The winner of the 2016 presidential Election will be announced after the votes are tallied. Students need to also know that if this is a close Election, it is not the popular vote that decides the President, it is the Electoral College that decides it.