Primaries%20and%20Presidential%20Elections

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Primaries and Presidential Elections
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Kinds of Elections

• Primary Elections
• Election in which voters decide which of the
  candidates within a party will represent the
  party in the general election.
• Closed primary a primary election in which only
  a partys registered voters are eligible to vote
• Open primary a primary in which party members,
  independents, and sometimes members of the other
  party are allowed to vote
• Crossover voting participation in the primary of
  a party with which the voter is not affiliated
• Raiding An organized attempt by voters of one
  party to influence the primary results of the
  other party
• A nonpartisan blanket primary (also known as a
  Louisiana primary or Jungle Primary) is a primary
  election in which all candidates for elected
  office run in the same primary regardless of
  political party.

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General Elections

• General elections are those in which voters
  decide which candidates will actually fill
  elective public offices
• Held at many levels.
• Contests between the candidates of opposing
  parties

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Initiative, Referendum, and Recall

• Initiative
• An election that allows citizens to propose
  legislation and submit it to the state electorate
  for popular vote
• Referendum
• An election whereby the state legislature submits
  proposed legislation to the states voters for
  approval
• Recall
• Voters can remove an incumbent from office by
  popular vote
• Are very rare

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Presidential Elections

• Primary elections or caucuses are used to elect
  national convention delegates which choose the
  nominee
• Winner-take-all primary
• Proportional representation primary
• Caucus

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Primaries v. Caucuses

• Over years, trend has been to use primaries
  rather than caucuses to choose delegates
• Caucus is the oldest, most party-oriented method
  of choosing delegates to the national conventions
• Arguments for primaries
• More democratic
• More representative
• A rigorous test for the candidate
• Arguments for caucuses
• Caucus participants more informed more
  interactive and informative
• Unfair scheduling affects outcomes
• Frontloading (being first in the primary
  calendar) gives some primary states an advantage
• Frontloading is the tendency to choose an early
  date on the primary schedule

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The Party Conventions

• Out-of-power party holds its convention first, in
  late July, followed in mid-August by party
  holding the presidency
• Conventions were decision-making body in the 19th
  century
• Today the convention is fundamentally different
• Nominations settled well in advance of the
  convention

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The Party Conventions Delegate Selections

• Unit Rule
• A traditional party practice under which the
  majority of a state delegation can force the
  minority to vote for its candidate
• Abolished by the Democrats
• New Democratic party rule decrees that states
  delegates be chosen in proportion to the votes
  cast in its primary or caucus. (30 of votes
  30 delegates from that state) proportional
  allocation
• Superdelegates
• Delegate slot to the Democratic Partys national
  convention that is reserved for an elected party
  official
• Some rules originating in Democratic Party have
  been enacted as state laws thus applying them to
  the Republican Party as well.

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National Conventions The News Media

• Changing nature of coverage
• No prime time coverage on some days
• Extending coverage on the final day of each
  convention
• Reflects change in political culture
• More interest in the candidates themselves
• Convention still generates much coverage for the
  party

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The Electoral College

• The institution that formally elects the
  president of the United States
• Representatives of each state (electors) who cast
  the final ballots that actually elect a president
• Total number of electors for each state equal to
  the number of senators and representatives that a
  state has in the U.S. Congress
• District of Columbia is given 3 electoral votes

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The Electoral College

• Result of compromise between
• Selection by Congress versus direct popular
  election
• Three essentials to understanding the design of
  the Electoral College
• Constructed to work without political parties
• Constructed to cover both the nominating and
  electing phases of presidential selection
• Constructed to produce a nonpartisan president

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The Electoral College in the 19th Century

• 12th Amendment (1804)
• Attempt to remedy the confusion between the
  selection of vice presidents and presidents that
  emerged in the election 1800
• Provided for separate elections for each office,
  with each elector having only one vote to cast
  for each
• In event of a tie, the election still went to the
  House
• Top three candidates go to House
• Each state House delegation casts one vote

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The Electoral College in the Twentieth and
Twenty-First Centuries

• Electoral college crises
• At times a candidate can win the Electoral
  College vote without having won the popular vote
• Reapportionment matters
• Representation of states in the Electoral College
  is altered every ten years to reflect population
  shifts
• Recent reapportionment has favored the
  Republicans
• With the exception of California, George W. Bush
  carried all of the states that gained seats in
  2000

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The Electoral College Reconsidered

• Popular Vote
• Congressional District Plan
• Keep the College, Abolish the Electors

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Congressional Elections

• Very different from presidential elections
• Lesser known candidates, more difficulty getting
  media attention
• Incumbency Advantage
• Staff support
• Media and travel
• The Scare-off effect
• Redistricting/Gerrymandering

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Congressional Elections

• When incumbents lose it is generally due to
• Redistricting
• Gerrymandering
• Scandals
• Presidential Coattails

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Midterm Congressional Elections

• Election takes place in the middle of a
  presidential term
• Presidents party usually loses seats in midterms
• Tendency for voters to punish the presidents
  party more severely in the sixth year of an eight
  year presidency - 6th year itch
• Retrospective voting
• Senate elections less inclined to the 6th year
  itch
• 2002 midterm elections were a remarkable
  exception
• Bush picked up seats in the House and Senate
• 2006 midterm elections backlash against the
  Republicans

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Reforming the Electoral Process

• Focus on the Electoral College
• Other areas
• Nomination
• Regional primaries
• Campaign Finance Reform
• Online Voting
• Voting by Mail
• Modernizing the Ballot

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