Campaign finance reform is a hot topic for many legislators today. Is too much money being spent by candidates running for office? Should there be limits to how much someone can contribute to a campaign. Who can support who financially? Hard money versus soft money. Why are many pushing so hard for campaign reform. Lets explore data pertaining to campaign finance and the 2000 Presidential election. Is it possible to buy the presidency?
DIRECTIONS:
PART
1:
1.
Visit the Federal Elections Committee website at www.fec.gov
.
2. Click on
the Campaign Finance Reports and Data link in the margin on the
left.
3. Scroll down the
page to the link to the Summary Financial Information for 2000
Presidential Campaigns Through July 31, 2000 page.
4. Highlight
the data for the candidates on the top half of the page. (Only the
rows titled: from Bush to Browne and the columns from Federal
Matching Funds to the Total Amount.) Right click and COPY this
information.
5. Open a new document
in Excel, place cursor in cell A1 and PASTE the information into
Excel.
6. Expand the column
widths so all information appears in the boxes as whole dollar amounts.
7. Delete boxes
labeled "Republican" "Democrats" "Others", deleting the ENTIRE ROW.
8. Delete all columns
EXCEPT
for the names of candidates and TOTAL $.
9. Highlight remaining
information(Candidates names and Total $). Go to INSERT. Then scroll down
to CHART.
10. Step 1: Choose
a COLUMN graph to best represent your data. Click Next.
Step 2: Keep settings as is. Click next.
Step 3: Give chart a title. (i.e. Amount Spent By Candidate in the 2000
Presidental Election Campaign). Label the Category(X):Candidates and the
Value(Y) Amount in Millions of Dollars. Click Next.
Step 4: Show chart on same page as data. Click Finish.
11. Copy and paste
this chart in a Word Document.
PART 2:
1. Go to 2000
PRESIDENTIAL POPULAR VOTE SUMMARY
2. Highlight the
candidates in the first row from Gore to Browne and their popular vote
totals. (NOT percentage of vote)
3. COPY this
information onto SHEET 2 in your Excel document. Delete any extra columns
of data. Delete the Party name in the cell under the candidates name.
4. Highlight remaining
information(Candidates name and number of popular votes). Go to INSERT.
Then scroll down to CHART.
5. Step 1: Choose
a COLUMN graph to best represent your data. Click Next.
Step 2: Keep settings as is. Click next.
Step 3: Give chart a title. (i.e. Amount of Popular Vote Recieved). Label
the Category(X):Candidates and the Value(Y) Number of Votes in Millions.
Click Next.
Step 4: Show chart on same page as data. Click Finish.
6. Copy and Paste
this graph directly under your first graph in your Word Document. Answer
the following questions in Word under the graphs you have created. (**Pay
attention that not all of the same candidates are listed on both graphs
and they may not be in the same order)
ANALYSIS:
1. What patterns
(if any) do you notice between the amount of money a candidate spends and
how many votes they receive?
2. Can you explain
possible reasons for these results? Can we see causation or simply a correlation?
3. Do you think
that the trends seen in these graphs have a positive or negative effect
on campaigns?
4. Should campaign
finance be reformed. Why or why not? Explain.
5. (Referring back
to original data on FEC page) From where do most candidates receive funds?
6. Do you think
these trends can be see in other elections (i.e. House of Representatives,
Senate). Do you think these trends change from year to year?
Find other information on the Federal Elections Committee website pertaining to different elections, analyze their data, and compare the results.