|
Your Voter Registration Deadline for the November 7, 2006 Federal
Election has already passed. Please continue to complete the process, as you
will then be registered and your information updated for the next election.
For further information about Voter Registration
Deadlines in TX, please contact your local Secretary of State’s office:
Office of the Secretary of State
Elections Division
P.O. Box 12060
Austin, TX 78711-2060
http://www.sos.state.tx.us/elections/index.shtml
If you are a U.S. Citizen in the armed forces or living abroad and wish to
register to vote please contact the Federal Voting Assistance Program.
To Register in Texas you must:
-
be a citizen of the United States
-
be a resident of the county in which the application for
registration is made
-
be at least 17 years and 10 months old (you must be 18 to vote)
-
not be finally convicted of a felony, or if a convicted felon,
you must have fully discharged your punishment, including any incarceration,
parole, supervision, period of probation or be pardoned.
-
have not been declared mentally incompetent by final judgment of
a court of law.
-
Contact your Elections Division and ask them to mail a form to
you, which you can then fill out and mail back. Click Here
(http://www.epcounty.com/elections) to contact your Elections Division and
request a form.
THE GENERAL ELECTION
After the conventions, the campaign to win the general election
begins. It's heated, it's expensive, and it's exciting. You feel like you can't
escape it, so REGISTER to VOTE and participate!
On the Tuesday following the first Monday of November, millions of U.S.
citizens go to local voting booths to elect, among other officials, the next
president and vice president of their country. Their votes will be recorded and
counted, and winners will be declared. But the results of the popular vote are
not guaranteed to stand because the Electoral College has not cast its' vote.
The Electoral College from start to Finish
he national presidential election actually consists of a separate
election in each of the 50 states and the District of Columbia. In these 51
elections, the voters are really voting for "electors" pledged to one of the
tickets. These electors make up the Electoral College.
Each state has the same number of electors as it has Senators and
Representatives (there are two senators from each state, but the number of
representatives depends on the state population in the most recent census). The
District of Columbia, although it isn't a state, also participates in
presidential elections -- it currently has three electors.
Registered voters in each state vote for electors in the Electoral College. In
most of the states, and also in the District of Columbia, the election is
winner-take-all; whichever ticket receives the most votes in that state (or in
D.C.) gets all the electors. The only exceptions are Maine and Nebraska.
The Electoral College then votes for president and for vice-president, with
each elector casting one vote; these votes are called electoral votes. Each
elector pledges to represent the popular vote winner for their state at the
Electoral College. Most of the time, electors cast their votes for the
candidate who has received the most votes in that particular state.
Under this system, each state is assigned a specific number of votes that is
proportional to its population, so that each state's power is representative of
its population. Winning the popular vote may not ensure a candidate's victory,
so they must try to gain popular support of particular states in order to win
the votes of that state. The goal of any candidate is to put together the right
combination of states that will give him or her 270 electoral votes. If there
is no majority winner, then the U.S. House of Representatives votes to
determine who will become the next president.
Reasons for the Electoral College
In 1787, at the Constitutional Convention, the founders were
debating on how to decide on choosing the President. At the time, there existed
many differing ideas on how the president was going to be elected. At the
convention, the founders realized that having Congress elect the
chief-executive, would throw off the system of checks and balances. If congress
elected the president , it would mean the office could be controlled by the
legislature. The founders also rejected the idea of actually letting the people
directly elect the president. Instead they opted for an indirect popular vote -
the Electoral college.
DID YOU KNOW?
In most elections, all the electors pledge to vote in accordance
with the popular vote winner. However, only 27 U.S. states have electors who
are legally bound by their constitution to vote for their candidate. It is not
clear what would happen in the unlikely event that a large number of electors
violated their pledge and voted differently.
Winning the Popular Vote but not the Presidency
In most presidential elections, a candidate who wins the popular
vote will also receive the majority of the electoral votes, but this is not
always the case. There have been four presidents who have won an election with
fewer popular votes than their opponent, but acquired more electoral votes:
1824: John Quincy Adams received more than 38,000 fewer votes than Andrew
Jackson, but neither candidate won a majority of the Electoral College. Adams
was awarded the presidency when the election was thrown to the House of
Representatives.
1876: Nearly unanimous support from small states gave Rutherford B. Hayes a
one-vote margin in the Electoral College, despite the fact that he lost the
popular vote to Samuel J. Tilden by 264,000 votes.
1888: Benjamin Harrison lost the popular vote by 95,713 votes to Grover
Cleveland, but won the electoral vote by 65.
2000: George W. Bush loses the popular vote by 539,898, but won a greater
majority of larger states to defeat Al Gore.
[top]
TERMS AND DEFINITIONS
Electoral College
A group of persons called "electors," selected by the voters in each state,
that officially elects the president and vice president. The number of electors
in each state is equal to its number of representatives in both houses of
Congress.
Indirect Popular Vote
The current system of voting in the United States can be described as an
indirect popular vote. Registered voters actually vote for an elector who
pledges to vote for the candidate who wins the popular vote in the Electoral
College. Enables candidates who win the popular vote may potentially lose the
race in the Electoral College.
Direct Popular Vote
A vote made by registered and qualified voters, that directly elects a
candidate. It is the system that the Electoral college uses to gauge the
public's opinion as to whom should be elected president and vice-president.
Split-Ticket Voting
Voting for candidates of different parties for various offices in the same
election. For example, voting for a Republican senator and a Democrat for
president.
Straight-Ticket Voting
Voting candidates who are all of the same party. For example, voting for
Republican candidates for senator, representative, and president.
Exit Poll
an informal poll taken as people leave the voting booth. Exit polls are used to
predict the outcome of the election before the polls are closed.
Majority Leader
Leader of the majority party in either the House or the Senate. In the House,
second in command to the Speaker.
Speaker of the House
Elected by the majority party, the Speaker presides over the House of
Representatives during the two-year legislative session.
Senate Majority Leader
first-ranking party position, held by a distinguished senior member of the
majority party in the Senate. The Senate majority leader schedules floor
actions on bills, and helps guide the majority party's legislative program
through the Senate.
Absentee Voting
A way people can vote if they must be out of town or are unable to get to their
polling place on Election Day. They vote on a paper ballot and mail it in to
their local elections office. Voters may also be able to cast an absentee
ballot in person in advance of the election at their local elections office. In
Virginia and some other states, absentee ballots are counted on Election Day,
but in others, the absentee ballots may be counted as much as a week after the
election.
Incumbent
A person now holding an office.
Independent
A candidate not belonging to one of the major political parties.
Initiative
A power granted to voters in some states and local governments to introduce a
matter before the governing body or to place it directly before the voters for
their approval, without consideration by the appropriate legislative body.
Issues
Problems, ideas to be talked about, questions, decided upon and voted on.
Landslide
An election in which one candidate defeats the other by a very large margin.
Measure
A question or proposal submitted in an election to obtain an expression of the
voters' will on the matter.
Mudslinging
Negative, often personal, frequently inaccurate or exaggerated attacks of the
opposition.
National Voter Registration Act (NVRA)
This 1993 federal law requires that states allow residents to obtain voter
registration materials as they apply for a driver's license as well as utilize
given public services. Completion of a voter registration form at one of these
facilities does not guarantee registration, however, as in most cases the forms
must first be forwarded to the appropriate election officials for verification
and processing.
Nominee
The person that a political party chooses to represent it in a general
election. This is called nomination.
Non-partisan
Not supporting or controlled by a group or a cause.
Open primary
A primary election that differs from a closed primary in that all voters,
regardless of party affiliation, may vote for a party's nominee.
Partisan
A strong, often emotional supporter of a person or cause; can apply to a group
as well as individuals.
Party
A group of people who join together because they share many ideas about what
the government should do.
Platform
A public statement of the principles, objectives, and policy of a political
party, a plan.
Political Action Committee (PAC)
An organization of 50 or more people that is created to raise money for favored
political candidates and is registered with the Federal Election Commission
(FEC). A PAC may be formed by any group, including businesses, labor unions,
and special interest bodies.
Poll
A place where votes are cast; also refers to a survey to assess public opinion
or to forecast an election.
Pollster
A person or company that researches public opinion.
Precinct
A division of voters by neighborhood; smallest political unit in U.S. politics.
Cities and counties are divided into precinct polling districts, each
containing 200 to 5,000 voters and a polling place.
Referendum
The legal process of submitting to the voters for their approval or rejection
of proposed state or local laws or constitutional amendments.
Unbiased
Without favor or blame, objective.
[top]
Presidential trivia
Presidential Fun Facts
Over 20% of the U.S. presidents did not attend college! (George Washington,
Andrew Jackson, Martin Van Buren, Zachary Taylor, Millard Fillmore, Abraham
Lincoln, Andrew Johnson, Grover Cleveland, Harry Truman)
Abraham Lincoln won the presidency in 1860 even though he wasn't on the ballot
in 9 states, representing 1/5 of the electoral vote!
Grover Cleveland hanged two murderers when he served as public executioner of
Oneida County NY.
In 1912, Woodrow Wilson defeated two presidents in one election - incumbent
President William Howard Taft, and former President Theodore Roosevelt.
In 1933, for the first time in history, all the members of the Electoral
College were invited to a presidential inauguration (to witness Franklin
Roosevelt take the oath of office).
November 7, 1848 , was the day of the first national election held on the same
day in every state. Zachary Taylor was elected president.
John Tyler was the first vice president to take office after the death of a
president, earning him the nickname "His Accidency."
At 28, James Buchanan was engaged to be married. Because of untrue rumors, his
fiancée broke off the engagement. She would die young. A heart-broken and
grief-stricken Buchanan vowed never to marry, and to this day is the only
president to remain a bachelor his entire life.
William Henry Harrison was born in Charles City County, Virginia in 1773. His
vice president, John Tyler, was born in the same county in 1790.
There were, in fact, eight presidents who were born in Virginia: George
Washington, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, James Monroe, William Henry
Harrison, John Tyler, Zachary Taylor, and Woodrow Wilson.
To supplement his income as a lawyer, Gerald Ford worked as a model, and
actually appeared on the cover of Cosmopolitan in 1942.
Not old enough to vote himself, a nineteen year old Grover Cleveland worked on
Democrat James Buchanan's successful bid for president in 1856. Cleveland
probably would have been shocked at the time to learn that the next Democrat to
win the White House would be himself, 28 years later in 1884!
In 1925, Calvin Coolidge became the first president to be sworn in by a former
president, Chief Justice William Howard Taft.[top]
Personal Stats
Q: Who was the youngest president? Who was the oldest?
A: The youngest elected president was John F. Kennedy at 43. The youngest
president to be inaugurated was Theodore Roosevelt at 42, following the
assassination of William McKinley. At 77, Ronald Reagan was the oldest
president at the time he left office. The oldest living former president is
Gerald Ford, who was born in 1913.
Q: Who was the tallest president? Who was the shortest?
A: Tallest: Abraham Lincoln. Shortest: James Madison.
Q: Who was the heaviest president? Who was the lightest?
A: Heaviest: William Howard Taft, who weighed more than 300 lbs. He was said to
have installed a special bathtub in the White House that could fit four normal
sized men. Lightest: James Madison at about 100 lbs.
Q: Which presidents were related?
A: There have been two sets of presidents who were father and son:
John Adams and John Quincy Adams, and George Bush and George W. Bush. Other
presidents who were related: William H. Harrison and Benjamin Harrison
(grandfather and grandson); James Madison and Zachary Taylor (second cousins);
and Theodore Roosevelt and Franklin D. Roosevelt (fifth cousins).
Presidential Deaths
Q: How many presidents have died in office?
A: Eight presidents have died in office (four by assassination):
William Henry Harrison, 9th president (1841), died April 4, 1841 from
pneumonia.
Zachary Taylor, 12th president (1849-50), died July 9, 1850 from food poisoning
or cholera.
Abraham Lincoln, 16th president (1861-65), died April 15, 1865 by
assassination.
James Abram Garfield, 20th president (1881), died September 19, 1881 from blood
poisoning resulting from doctors probing for an assassin's bullet with
non-sterile instruments.
William McKinley, 25th president (1897-1901), died September 14, 1901 by
assassination.
Warren G. Harding, 29th president (1921-23), died August 2, 1923 from either a
heart attack or a stroke depending on the source. Harding's wife refused to
allow an autopsy to be performed.
Franklin D. Roosevelt, 32nd president (1933-45), died April 12, 1945 from a
cerebral hemorrhage.
John F. Kennedy, 35th president (1961-63), died November 22, 1963 by
assassination.
Q: Who would become president if the president and the vice-president both
died?
A: The Presidential Succession Law of 1947 deals with what would
happen if both the president and the vice-president were simultaneously
disabled. Under the law, the Speaker of the House would succeed to the
Presidency.[top]
Q: Has any president ever died inside the White House?
A: Two presidents have died in the White House: William Henry Harrison
died there in 1841, and Zachary Taylor died there in 1850.[top]
Q: Which president is buried in Washington , D.C.?
A: Woodrow Wilson is the only president buried in Washington , D.C. He is
buried at the Washington Cathedral.
Q: Which president was not a citizen of the U.S. when he died?
A: The one president who was not a U.S. citizen when he died was the 10th
President, John Tyler. A native of Virginia, he died in that state on Jan. 18,
1862 as a citizen of the Southern Confederacy. Incidentally, Tyler also has the
distinction of being the first president to be born in the United States, in
1790. All previous presidents were born before the War for Independence.
Presidential Firsts
Q: Who was the first president to fly in an airplane?
A: The first president to fly in an airplane while in office was Franklin
Delano Roosevelt in 1943. The first ex-president to fly in an airplane was
Theodore Roosevelt, who flew as a passenger in a 4-minute flight in one of the
early Wright biplanes on October 11, 1910 , a year after he had left office.
Q: Who was the first president to get a pilot's license?
A: The first president to get a pilot's license was Dwight Eisenhower, issued
on 11/30/39.
Q: Who's the first President to appear on television?
A: The first president to appear on black & white television was Franklin
Delano Roosevelt on April 30, 1939 at the opening ceremonies for the World's
Fair. But, Harry S. Truman was the first president to give an address from the
White House on October 5, 1947. The first president on color television was
Dwight D. Eisenhower on June 6, 1955, when he appeared at his 40th class
reunion at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point.
FYI: Warren G. Harding was the first president to give a speech over radio.
This happened on June 14, 1922, when he spoke at the dedication of the Francis
Scott Key memorial at Ft. McHenry, Baltimore , Md. on station WEAR.[top]
Q: Who was the first president to be born in a hospital?
A: Jimmy Carter was the first president to be born in a hospital.
Q: Who was the first president to have electric lights at the White House?
A: The first president to have electric lights in the White House was Benjamin
Harrison. A Compton 's encyclopedia article about Harrison states: "Congress
appropriated $35,000 to have the White House renovated, and Mrs. Harrison spent
the money carefully. When the White House was wired for electricity, the
Harrisons asked one of the electricians to stay on because they were afraid to
turn the lights on and off. The man they selected was Ike Hoover, who remained
on the White House staff for 42 years." [top]
Presidential Elections
Q: Which Presidents lost the popular vote but still became President?
A: There have been four cases of this happening thus far. In 1824, John Quincy
Adams was awarded the presidency by the House of Representatives, despite not
having won the popular vote or the electoral college vote (neither he nor
opponent Andrew Jackson had an electoral college majority). In 1876, Rutherford
B. Hayes became President despite losing the popular vote to Samuel J. Tilden,
because Hayes had a one vote advantage in the electoral college. In 1888, in a
much more clear-cut example of a candidate losing the popular vote but winning
the electoral college vote, Benjamin Harrison was elected President over Grover
Cleveland. Finally, in 2000, George W. Bush became president after losing the
popular vote to Al Gore, but winning the electoral vote.
Q: What does the law say about the number of terms/years a President can
serve?
A: A lot of people believe that the law only prohibits Presidents from serving
more than two consecutive terms, when, in fact this is not the case. They also
wonder what limits are placed on someone who becomes President during the
middle of a term. Amendment 22 of the Constitution covers both of these issues.
Here is the applicable text from this Amendment:
"No person shall be elected to the office of the President more than twice, and
no person who has held the office of President, or acted as President, for more
than two years of a term to which some other person was elected President shall
be elected to the office of the President more than once."
Miscellaneous
Q: Which presidents have stood trial for impeachment?
A: President Andrew Johnson stood trial for impeachment in 1868. The
impeachment vote did not pass in the Senate. The House Judiciary Committee
issued three articles of impeachment against President Nixon on July 30, 1974,
but President Nixon resigned before the impeachment process could continue to
trial. President Clinton stood trial for impeachment. The Senate acquitted
Clinton on Feb. 12, 1999. [top]
Q: I understand that there was a President of the United States that served
for only 24 hours. Who was he?
A: David Rice Atchison , a mid-19th century Senator from Missouri was
president of the U.S. for one day: Sunday, March 4, 1849 , between the
expiration of James Polk's term at noon of that day and the official oath of
office taken by Zachary Taylor on Monday. The law at that time specified that
the President was to be sworn in on March 4th, a date that fell on a Sunday in
1849; but President-elect Taylor refused to be sworn in on the Sabbath
(Sunday). Atchison had been elected President Pro Tempore of the Senate a
couple of days before and was thus technically third in line of succession
behind the President and Vice President, of which (arguably) on that day were
nonexistent. [top]
Q: Is is true that George Washington was not the first President of the
United States?
A: Yes. There were actually SEVEN presidents before George Washington.
They are known to history as the "Presidents under the Articles of
Confederation" and had the official title of "President of the United States in
Congress Assembled." The first was John Hanson (1781-82), and the next six
presidents were Elias Boudinot (1783), Thomas Mifflin (1784), Richard Henry Lee
(1785), Nathan Gorman (1786), Arthur St. Clair (1787), and Cyrus Griffin
(1788). There were actually sixteen Presidents of the Continental Congress, but
John Hanson, the ninth, was the first to serve as President under the Articles
of Confederation and the first to hold the title "President of the United
States." [top]
Q: Which American president lived with a bullet in his chest most of his
life?
A: Andrew Jackson (1829-37) who was wounded in a duel with Charles Dickenson in
May of 1806.
Q: How many presidents have changed their names legally?
A: Seven:
Ulysses Simpson Grant -- changed from Hiram Ulysses Grant
Grover Cleveland -- changed from Stephen Grover Cleveland
Woodrow Wilson -- changed from Thomas Woodrow Wilson
Calvin Coolidge -- changed from John Calvin Coolidge
Dwight David Eisenhower -- changed from David Dwight Eisenhower
Gerald Rudolph Ford -- changed from Leslie King, Jr. (changed when his mother
remarried and his stepfather legally adopted him)
William Jefferson Clinton -- changed from William Jefferson Blythe (changed
when his mother remarried and his stepfather legally adopted him) [top]
Q: The president lives in the White House, but what about the Vice
President?
A: Since 1974 the U.S. Vice-President has lived in a large,
white-painted, Victorian house on the southeast corner of 34th Street and
Massachusetts Avenue in the District of Columbia . It is located on the grounds
of the U.S. Naval Observatory. The official title of the home is "The Admiral's
House."
Q: Which Presidents were/are left-handed?
A: James A. Garfield (1831-1881) 20th; Herbert Hoover (1874-1964)
31st; Harry S. Truman (1884-1972) 33rd; Gerald Ford (1913- ) 38th; Ronald
Reagan (1911-2004) 40th; George Bush (1924- ) 41st; Bill Clinton (1946- ) 42nd.
Q: Which President could write Greek with one hand and Latin with the
other?
A: James Garfield.
Q: What President became Chief Justice after his presidency?
A: William Howard Taft.
|