Researching Elected Representatives: A Scavenger Hunt to Understand Governance

Abstract

Representative Scavenger Hunt Grading Rubric: 50 points The purpose of this assignment is for you to learn how to identify who represents you in state and national government and to find out how they are voting once in office. The assignment requires that you do some research on your own using the websites provided to identify who represents you and what they are doing once in office. Everyone has four people who represent them in political office: State Senator, State Representative, US Senator and US Representative. The State officials serve in each state’s capital, and the US officials serve in Washington DC representing their states. Each district is divided differently based on which office they are serving in, so that is why you may see two officials in different offices with the same district number. Therefore it is important to use Ballotpedia and Votesmart and the address where you are registered to vote to identify who is representing you at each level.  Each person you are writing to represents your state. For example, if you live in Missouri the US Senator you are writing to is from Missouri and represents the state in Washington DC. Your State Senator represents you in Jefferson City. Follow the steps below for this assignment: Use this links below to find out who represents you at your home address: https://ballotpedia.org/Who_represents_me https://justfacts.votesmart.org/ 1) Click on the link and enter the address where you are registered to vote. *NOTE: You will have two US Senators, but you only need to write to one of them *One way to determine who is who is by looking at their mailing address If the address is in Washington DC then they are your US officials. If the address is in Jefferson City (or your home sates capitol) then they are your state officials. 2) Once you identify your state representative, state senator,...