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Have students review the origin, purpose and function of the Electoral College. Ask students: What is the "winner take all" system? Are there any states that do not follow this system? If so, how do they determine their electoral vote allocation? How many electoral votes are needed to win the presidency? Next, divide students into small groups and assign each group a current swing state in the 2008 presidential race. Consult the CNN Electoral Map Calculator for a list of swing states. Then, refer groups to online resources, including CNN's Election Center 2008 on the CNN Politics site, to identify the following for their assigned swing state: * the number of electoral votes that are up for grabs * the state's key political issues * the U.S. presidential candidates' stances on these key issues * the state's demographic composition * the state's voting record in past presidential elections

Crunching the Numbers - September 05, 2008 Nate Silver created a remarkably accurate computer system that projects stats for baseball players and teams. Now he's turned his attention to polling data for the presidential election with his website Five Thirty Eight. Silver explains how his site can out-perform the polling firms, whose data he relies on.

Weclome to SpeechWars, a great way to see what the candidates are saying. Simply type in a word, click "Go", and SpeechWars shows you how often the candidates used the word in their speeches. You can also compare two words by using both text boxes.

The United States Library of Congress has selected SpeechWars for inclusion in its official historic collections of Internet materials related to Election 2008. The United States Library of Congress preserves the Nation's cultural artifacts and provides enduring access to them. The Library's traditional functions, acquiring, cataloging, preserving and serving collection materials of historical importance to the Congress and to the American people to foster education and scholarship extend to digital materials, including Web sites. The Library will make this collection available to researchers. The Library's vision is to preserve these Web materials about Election 2008, and to permit researchers from across the world to access them.

Latest 2008 election news & information from MSN; presidential election opinion & analysis; compare Republican & Democratic presidential candidates on issues; political video & blogs; current polls; election map; more.

Karen McMillan's List: Election 2008 - This list is a collection of websites concerning the upcoming presidential election. It is geared toward lesson planning and research for lesson planning.

As featured on CNN. Which 2008 Presidential Candidate Agrees With You? Answer the questions below to find the 2008 presidential candidate that best aligns with your beliefs. More than 1.5 million people have already filled it out.

The animated map depicts the changes over time in the state-by-state Intrade contract prices for the 2008 presidential election. There is a brief pause before the animation starts again.

Obama Works is an independent grassroots organization that helps Obama supporters in neighborhoods across the country to organize community service events. The group was founded in early 2008 by a group of Yale students who were inspired by Barack Obama and felt that the energy surrounding his campaign could be channeled to do more than generate votes.

Over view of how the web site called US Election 2008 Web Monitor works

This looks like a great online project for the 2008 election for K-6 students. They vote for president and the data is available for them to use in many projects. Site includes resource links, indeas and books.

Info shared by Nancy Golubic, Project Coordinator, Boardman, Ohio. I've just posted my Election 2008 Online project. Four years ago, I ended up with almost 5,000 kids across the country voting. This year I hope to get more votes. Take a look. It says that registration opens on August 18th, but the registration link already works.

Looks like this starts August 18 recommended by Jen Wagner

The latest breakdown by The New York Times of which states are considered to be in play in the presidential election, along with how all the states voted in the past five elections.

With national, state, and county maps, CNN.com's Campaign Fundraising Interactive Map provides an in-depth view into the campaign fundraising of the Republican and Democratic presidential candidates.

Now, a war that had long been overshadowed by the one in Iraq is back in public view, at the forefront of both news media attention and the presidential campaign.

Short answer: Not much

The GOP opens its convention here Monday as a party in peril. Hobbled by an unpopular president, a disillusioned and divided base, and low poll ratings on almost every domestic issue, the party of Nixon and Reagan and Bush may well be at the end of a historic 40-year grasp on power, say conservative thinkers and political historians. Republicans lost the House of Representatives in 2006, and are now at risk of losing the Senate. They were defeated in special elections this year in congressional districts that in some cases hadn't elected a Democrat since the days of Lyndon Johnson.

But now, seemingly all of a sudden, conservatives are the ones who are tongue-tied, as demonstrated by Sen. John McCain's limping, message-free presidential campaign. McCain's ongoing difficulties in exciting voters aren't just a tactical problem; his woes stem largely from his long-standing adherence to a set of ideas that simply haven't worked in practice.