Becoming an Informed Voter

RESEARCH PAPER: BECOMING AN INFORMED VOTER ASSIGNMENT
INSTRUCTIONS
OVERVIEW
The purpose of this paper is to provide a practical application of material learned by developing
concepts learned in the presentations. Using these concepts, you will investigate the recent
political history of your congressional district and state, the rise to power and voting record of
your Representative to the United States Congress and one of your United State Senators. You
will determine if your representatives keep their promises when they go to Washington and
determine in their voting record aligns with Biblical principles and your own beliefs.
INSTRUCTIONS
The body of the paper must be at least 6 pages in current APA format and include level 1, 2, and
3 headings. In addition to the body, you must include a separate title page and reference page. Do
not submit an abstract with this assignment.
Do not write the paper without carefully studying the related presentations. To achieve more than
a passing grade, you must demonstrate a mastery of the presentations’ factual information and
incorporate those ideas into your paper. Your paper must adhere to the current APA formatting
guidelines. Doing the minimum amount of work does not guarantee a perfect score. Please
consult the rubric for an understanding of what will be graded and the point value for content and
style.
Researching your Congressional Delegation will be accomplished in two steps.
1. First, you will analyze the political background of your congressional district for the last
25 years and your U.S. Representative.
2. Second, you will analyze the political background of your state for the last 25 years and
one of your U.S. Senators. You are investigating your United States Representative and
Senator. Do not use members of your state legislature.
Begin by reviewing Watch: Becoming an Informed Voter. If you have a newly elected
representative who has not yet received interest group ratings, use the interest group ratings of a
representative from a neighboring district. You may choose which senator to study; however, if
one senator is newly elected and does not have interest group ratings, study the other one.
After reviewing the Watch item the first part will deal with your congressional district and
congressman; the second part will deal with your state and senator. As explained in the
presentation, interest group scores may be found at Vote Smart. They may also be found in the
interest group websites (ACLU, ACU, ADA, CC/FRC) or other cites which compile voting data.
A helpful source to find information for this paper is The Almanac of American Politics by
Richard E. Cohen and James A. Barnes.
Your paper will address the following questions:
 What is the political history of your district and state for the past 25 years?
 How has your congressional district and state voted in presidential and congressional
elections for the past 25 years?
 Does your district or state lean Republican or Democrat?
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 Are the political parties relatively even, or does one party dominate the elections?
 Does your district and state have a long tradition of supporting one party, or has it been
changing in recent years? Why?
 How did your representative and senator come to power? (Briefly describe their political
backgrounds.)
 What are examples some legislation your representative and senator have sponsored or
co-sponsored in the last four years? Did your legislators include this legislation in their
platform when they ran for office? How does this legislation align with biblical
principles? Explain use specific verses of scripture.
 How do the interest groups - ADA, ACLU, ACU, and CC (or FRC) - rate your
representative and senator? (Note: If the Christian Coalition score is not available, you
may substitute the Family Research Council score. Include the exact scores from each of
these groups.)
 Based on these ratings, would you classify your representative and senator as
conservative or liberal? Justify your answer.
 In your conclusion explain how your congressional delegation does, or does not, reflect
your values.
In answering these questions, please note the following:
 Do not submit your paper in the form of a series of questions and answers. Organize this
information into a standard research paper (paragraph form with level headings) utilizing
the current APA format.
 You will use at least six different sources for this paper that are not more than two years
old.
 You will include at least three complete biblical references with the text of the verses.
 Consult the grading rubric to make sure that all the necessary information has been
included.