Adaptations and Further Activities
These can also be used as scenario adaptations for older students. If you wish, students can split into groups and create a presentation on one of these issues.

• What if your party was for a town in 1919? Then women wouldn't have been able to vote. They would eat the ice cream, but they couldn't help decide what to order.
• What if your party was for a town in 1963? Then some African-Americans might not have been able to vote. Learn more about the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
• And until 1971, you had to be 21 to vote. The 26th Amendment lowered the voting age to 18 from 21 years of age. Consider age requirements in your class elections.
• Find out the rules for voting in the U.S. and your state. Talk about why there are rules. You might want to create election rules for your class. Consider topics like: If someone visits us for a day, can they vote in our election? What happens if a class member is out sick? (absentee ballot)
• Include third-party concepts by letting students write in their personal favorites for another scenario. Discuss how this affects the outcome of the election. See if some students change their write-in votes after the first election of its kind and if so, ask them why they switched.

Events to Analyze
Students might think that the U.S. is big enough to avoid the kind of problems they faced in the classroom. But mistakes and close races have happened in U.S. elections as well. Talk about the following events:

Event 1 - Close Elections
Every vote counts, especially in some elections. For example, in 1876, Rutherford B. Hayes won the Presidency by a very close margin. A special committee had to decide the electoral college results and choose between Hayes and his competitor Tilden. At the following sites, you can find out about other votes that were decided by very small margins.

• History and Facts about Voting
• Alaska's Voting Trivia
• National Archives and Records Administration: Electoral College

Event 2 - Dewey Defeats Truman Headline
When an election is close, sometimes the media make mistakes. On Tuesday, November 2, 1948, the Chicago Daily Tribune sent out newspapers to stores and homes with the results of the presidential election. The headline read "Dewey Defeats Truman!" Unfortunately, the newspaper was wrong; Truman defeated Dewey by a narrow margin.

• Hannibal Courier-Post Photo of the Historic Misprint
• "The Story Behind Dewey Defeats Truman" at History Buff
• Grolier presents The American Presidency This web site talks about all the presidents, their elections, and their accomplishments in office.

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