Election 2020

Mock Election

We want to know what you think.  Cast your vote for U.S. President in ISSS’ Mock Election.

Voting has Closed. Tune in to Stay Informed! Student Meeting on 11/6/2020 for Results.

U.S. Elections and Voting in the U.S.

Election day takes place November 3, 2020 and is always the first Tuesday in November after the first Monday.  Presidential elections happen every Snippet of CT ballot listing Parties and candidatesfour years.  Congressional elections happen every two years in the U.S. and there may be other local elections or special elections in other years as well.  In order to vote you must be a U.S. Citizen, 18 years old and registered to vote in the city where you live.  Each state has different rules surrounding requirements to vote including deadlines to register.

The ballots are different in each town or city in CT as there may be questions or candidates specific to that city in addition to the presidential and congressional nominees.   Click here to see what the ballots will look like in each Connecticut’s 169 cities and towns.  Ballots include rows for each political party and columns for each office that is up for election.  If a cell is blank it means there are no candidates running from that political party for the seat in question.  Voters can also write in the name of a candidate not included in the list of political parties.  It is rare that write in candidates win, but in recent years Lisa Murkowski, senator from Alaska,  lost the 2010 Republican primary, but still won the general election as a write-in candidate.  You can read her story here.

Definitions of Common Voting and Election Vocabulary

Candidate Platforms

While you may have watched the debates between Joe Biden and Donald Trump or Kamala Harris and Mike Pence, but there are actually four candidates running for president in 2020 who will be on the CT Ballot. Each state has different rules and deadlines for candidates to appear on the ballot.  In other states there may be additional parties and candidates on the ballot.  You may have even heard that Kanye West will appear on the ballot as a candidate for president in 12 states.

You can view their platforms below.

Democratic Party: Joe Biden-Kamala Harris Repbulican Party: Donald Trump-Mike Pence
Green Party: Howie Hawkins-Angela Walker Libertarian Party: Jo Jorgensen-Jeremy “Spike” Cohen

How the Presidential Election is Decided

While all other offices are elected through a popular vote, the office of president is decided by the electoral college. Each state has a certain number of electoral college votes.  The number of votes is determined by the number of congressional representatives (House and Senate) giving 538 total votes  and a candidate needs 270 electoral votes to become president. In 48 states the winner of the popular vote gets all the electoral college votes.  The electoral college was originally created as a compromise, somewhere between a popular vote and a congressional vote. 

It is possible to lose the popular vote but still win the electoral college.map of u.s. electoral college

  • Donald Trump (2016)
  • George W Bush (2000)
  • Benjamin Harrison (1888)
  • Rutherford B Hayes (1876)
  • John Quincy Adams (1824)

UConn Election Events

uKindness has compiled a big list of Educational Voting Events that you can participate in virtually.  You can also watch recordings of the debates online as well https://kindness.studentaffairs.uconn.edu/voting-resources/

Post election be sure to join in NOW WHAT a series of dialogues put on by the Humanities Institute about working past the election and looking forward to the future.  https://humanities.uconn.edu/now-what/

Election Resources

UConn Journalism’s Election 2020 Newsletter

The Process for Becoming President: https://kids.usa.gov/president/index.shtml

PBS 2020 Campaign: https://www.pbs.org/newshour/tag/2020-presidential-election

Pros/Cons of Candidates: https://2020election.procon.org/

http://www.isidewith.com/ – take a quiz to determine how your beliefs align with the candidates.