Description
The United States current senate composition for the 113th congress totals to 53 members of the Democratic party, 45 members of the Republican part and two independent members out of the 100 members. Senators are elected by their state as a whole. The idea is two senators per state regardless of population. Originally, senators were selected by the state legislatures, not by popular elections. By the early years of the 20th century, the legislatures of as many as 29 states had provided for popular election of senators. Senators serves for a staggered term of six years. This is so that approximately one-third of the seats are up for election every two years. The three classes of United States Senators are made up of 33 or 34 Senate seats each. Class 1 and Class 2 consist of 33 senators and class 3 has 34 senators. Should a 51st state be admitted, it would receive senators in Classes 1 and 2, at which point all three Classes would have 34 senators. Each state belongs to two of the three classes. The main purpose of the classes in the senate is to determine which senate seats will be up for election in a given year. Popular election to the Senate was standardized nationally in 1913 by the 17th Amendment. An elected senator serves for a staggered tem of six years. This is so that approximately one- third of the seats are up for election every two years. The three classes of United States Senators are made up of 33 or 34 Senate seats each. Class 1 and class 2 consist of 33 senators and class 3 has 34 senators. Should a 51st state be admitted, it would receive senators in classes 1 and 2, at which point all three classes would have 34 senators. Each state belongs to two of the three classes. The main purpose of the classes in the senate is to determine which Senate seats will be up for election in a given year. Popular election to the senate was standardized nationally in 1913 by the 17th amendment. While there is a lot of information available about the senate, in this fast paced mobile world, we would like to have the information readily available any place any time. The main focus here is to provide a quick but a detailed summary about the senate and its election trends. The application is developed as an Android application for mobile phones /tablets. The user can look up senate/senator facts on the fly using their mobiles/tablets. The application is intended for self-study by students at any level, K-12 or college, e.g. in history teachers can give assignments based on the political science application by including questions to be answered by a student, after exploring the app. The application can be downloaded for any device that runs Android version 2.3 and above. Due to extensive use of a database all the information necessary for the application is self contained. A user needs to have JRE installed on his/her system. The android application is written in the Java programming language and developed using Android SDK and other necessary plugins in Eclipse IDE.
