Primary season can be a wild ride. Voters narrow the field of candidates in contest after contest, while the parties use complicated rules to try to control who ultimately secures the nomination.
Public Participation Goes Viral
Social media revolutionized how the public and candidates interact – but how effective are the latest tools for shaping election outcomes?
Frenzy of the Final Weeks
In the last weeks of the campaign, candidates make a final push to sway undecided voters and strive to avoid even minor mistakes that could magnify into embarrassing gaffes.
Going for the Jugular
It happens sooner or later in every presidential race: attack ads drown out the promises of positive campaigns. Do these dark battles have any value?
Voting and Elections in Early America
Google Cultural Institute exhibit by Constitutional Rights Foundation & Barat Education Foundation’s Library of Congress Teaching with Primary Sources Program. Long before the pilgrims landed, voting and elections were taking place in America. For example, the Five Nations of the Iroquois Confederacy, a powerful alliance of Native American tribes who inhabited territory west of the Colonies, had established a system of representative government sometime around 1500 that lasted until the Revolutionary War. Women played a prominent role in choosing its political leaders.
Presidential Campaign Memorabilia on DocsTeach
This page includes a variety of primary sources in the form of artifacts, photographs, documents, and more; as well as additional online resources. Themes highlight political memorabilia from presidential campaigns from the 1850s through the 1990s. Items come from the holdings of the Presidential Libraries of the National Archives.
How Our Laws Are Made
A text-based guide to the workings of Congress and the Federal lawmaking process from the source of an idea for a legislative proposal through its publication as a statute. As the majority of laws originate in the House of Representatives, the publication focuses principally on that body. This guide enables readers to gain a greater understanding of the Federal legislative process and its role as one of the foundations of the United States of America’s representative system of government.
National Debate Topic for High Schools
Each year the U.S. Senate disseminates a document to assist debaters in researching the subject chosen by the National University Extension Association as the national high school debate topic. The guide provides references and excerpts to articles, reports, and other appropriate materials relating to the subject. In preparing the compilations the Congressional Research Service includes current materials which are representative of, and give equal emphasis to, the opposing views of the topic.
govinfo.gov
govinfo.gov offers a way to discover and access Government information from the three branches of the U.S. Government. Search or browse more than 50 collections of legislative, executive, and judicial primary source content. Find: Congressional bills, hearings, or the Congressional Record; Executive orders, presidential speeches, and regulations in the Federal Register; Opinions from more than 100 U.S. courts, and more. Use govinfo.gov on any device for official, digital, and secure content.
Constitutional Index – Amendment 14 State Due Process Clause
The Constitutional Index breaks down the U.S. Constitution by Section, Amendment, and Clause and contains broader topics and themes. These are used to cross-reference Library resources in an effort to annotate constitutional history.