Teachers Guide to Election Reform Page 1 LESSON 3: STATE VERSUS FEDERAL CONTROL Lesson Overview: Students will examine whether state or the federal government should have control over the election process. Students will analyze past history, determine who their state chief election official is, and understand the influence of partisans. Teaching Procedures: Activity 1: Ask students to read Student Handout Number 3 . The handout reads as follows: Writing   on   “Sectional   and   Class   Divisions,   1760-1775”  in  “The  Growth  of  the American Republic” Samuel Eliot Morison and Henry Steele Commager said:   “Fully  as  important  was  the  question  of  who  should  rule  in  the  colonies. Some  colonies,  such  as  North  Carolina,  were  relatively  democratic;  and others,  like  New  York,  fully  aristocratic  in  their  social  structure.  In  some, such    as    Massachusetts    and    New    Hampshire,    the    franchise   was   fairly broad;  in  others,  such  as  South  Carolina,  it  was  very  narrowly  restricted. But    no    one    of    the    13    was    really    democratic    in    political    or    social structures,    much    less    ‘dedicated    to    the    proposition    that    all    men    are created   equal.’   Class   distinctions  had  been  brought  from  England  by  the colonists,   and   since   maintained;   and   class   distinctions,   in   the   17th   and 18th centuries, implied political privilege. “In    all    the    colonies    in    1760,    the    franchise    was    limited    by    property qualifications,   which   were   much   higher   for   office-holding;   and   the   newly settled    regions    were    under-represented    in    colonial    legislatures,    and    in many    other    ways    treated    unfairly    by    colonial    politicians    and    men    of wealth.   There   was   nothing   new   in   this,   but   the   majority   were   beginning to  resent  it,  and  the  political  controversy  with  the  mother  country  enabled them   to   make   this   resentment   felt.   An   internal   quarrel,   partly   class   and partly    sectional,    cut    athwart    the    larger    contest    between    colonies    and mother  country.  There  were  really  two  American  revolutions  at  the  same time:   the   sectional   revolt   of   13   colonies   against   imperial   centralization; and     a     class     upheaval     against     vested     interests     and     local     governing classes.” Prepare a time line tracing these battles through watershed periods in our history such as the Constitutional Convention, the rise of Jacksonian Democracy, the Civil War, Reconstruction, World War I, the Great Depression, World War II, the Civil Rights Revolution, the Cold War, the end of the 20th century and the beginning of the 21st century.