In congressional elections in years when a president is not elected, the turnout rates are lower. Turnout rates are even lower yet for most local elections.
Turnout is given as a percentage of the voting-age citizen population. Turnout data is collected by the Census Bureau and is not available for several months after the election.
Various media stars have often attempted to increase the number of minorities and young voters participating in elections. Here, music and fashion mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs announces the creation of a new voter registration organization called Citizen Change in New York City.
The map of the United States shown here is distorted to show the relative weight of the states in terms of the electoral votes in 2000, following the changes required by the 2000 census. A candidate must win 270 electoral votes to be elected president.
www.democrats.org and www.rnc.org Links to the Democratic National Committee and the Republican National Committee. Each of these pages contains information about the campaign organizations of the two national parties. www.rockthevote.com/home.php Rock the Vote encourages young voters to register and vote and provides nonpartisan information about campaigns and issues. www.fairvote.org Students can learn about the impact of different voting systems on election strategies and outcomes at the Center for Voting and Democracy.
