Description
Between 1952 and 1992,
voter turnout in presidential elections dropped from 61.6% to approximately
54%. Find out what keeps people
from voting and how they can be convinced to
participate.
§ What
percent of the people in your neighborhood/community
vote?
§ What
differences do you think there are in voting patterns between groups, for
example, between younger and older voters, men and
women?
§ If you were
trying to increase voter participation on an issue of importance to you, who
would you target and how would you go about it?
SOFTWARE: Word
WHAT TO DO: Use a
Voting Survey template to solicit voting behavior
data.
1. Open the Voting
Survey form.
2. Print out this form
and use to survey at least 20 family members, friends, and others who were of
voting age in 2000 (the most recent Presidential Election).
3. Exit
Word.
STEP
2 Count Your
Voters
SOFTWARE: Excel
WHAT TO DO: With the 20
surveys that you've collected, record your data in the Voting Patterns Excel
template.
1. Open the Voting
Patterns Excel template. Two tally sheets have been set up to help collect all
the data from your survey forms.
Voting
Patterns
2. Save a copy of your
worksheet. On the File menu, click
Save As.
3. In the Save In box,
choose a location to save your file.
4. In the File Name
box, type <Your Initials>Voting Patterns.
5. In the Save As box,
choose Microsoft Excel Workbook.
6. Click
Save.
7.Go through each
survey that you collected and enter the data into the appropriate cells on the
Tally(Female) and Tally(Male) sheets.
11. On the File menu,
click Save.
STEP
3 Look for
Patterns
SOFTWARE: Excel
WHAT TO DO: After all
the survey data has been entered, analyze it, then chart your data.
1. Click the Summary
Frequency tab to view a summary of the survey data you entered into the
Tally(Female) and Tally(Male) sheet. While you’re looking at the data, ask
yourself these questions:
§ Who is more
likely to vote: Men or women?
§ Who is more
likely to vote: Younger people or older people?
§ What's the
most common reason for not voting?
STEP
4 Chart the Data (My Eighth
grade classes only)
SOFTWARE: Excel
WHAT TO DO: Use the
Excel Chart Wizard to graph the voting behavior by gender, following these
steps:
1. Highlight cells
B4:C7.
2. On the Insert menu,
click Chart.
3. Click Pie, and then
click Next.
4. Click Next again to
go to step 3 of the Wizard.
5. Click in the Chart
title text box, and type Male Voting Behavior.
6. Click
Finish.
7. Repeat the above
steps to create a similar chart that shows female voting behavior by selecting
B4:B7, holding down the CTRL key, and selecting D4:D7.
WHAT TO DO: STEP 5 Target a Strategy
SOFTWARE: Excel,
PowerPoint
WHAT TO DO: Now that
you've looked at the data and have created some charts to visually represent the
data, it's time to come up with a strategy to get people to vote, and then to
create a PowerPoint presentation.
1. Develop a strategy for getting your
non-voters to the polls.
§ Do you
think that a series of ads could be persuasive?
§ Are there
logistical barriers, such as the hours the polls are open, that keep your group
from voting?
2. Open the Target a
Strategy PowerPoint template and use it as an outline for your own presentation.
Target a Strategy
PowerPoint Template
3. On the File menu,
click Save As.
4. In the Save In box,
choose a location to save your file.
5. In the File Name
box, type <Your Initials>Strategy.
6. Click
Save.
7. In the PowerPoint
Outline view, highlight the text next to Slide 1, Title Goes Here. Type a title
for your presentation.
8. Replace this
presentation’s placeholder text with your own text.
9. Copy a chart from
your Excel Voting Patterns sheets to your PowerPoint presentation. ?
10. On the View menu,
click Slide Show to view your presentation.
11. Click the Minimize button on the Get Out the Vote
Help title bar to view your slide
show.