ELECTIONS & CAMPAIGNS Chapter 7

HOW TO RUN FOR OFFICE 1 ST Step- NOMINATIONS The Naming of those who will seek office

5 Ways in which Nominations are made. 1)Self-Announcement 2)Caucus 3)Convention 4)Direct Primary 5)Petition

1. Self-Announcement Oldest form of the nomination process A person who wants to run for office simply announces that they want to run. Sometimes used by someone who failed to get a majority party to select them.

2. THE CAUCUS A group of like minded people meet and select the candidates they will support in an upcoming election. Usually only used in small New England Towns for local elections

3.THE CONVENTION 1 st National Convention held by Anti-Masons Democrats pick up the practice in 1832 In theory– the will of the party’s rank and file membership is passed up through each of its representatives levels

4. DIRECT PRIMARY Held within a party to pick from a slate of candidates for the general election.

Closed & Open Primaries 24 states have CLOSED primaries (you must register for one of the major parties and you only get their ballot)--Ohio 26 states have OPEN Primaries (you can pick either the Democratic ballot or Republican ballot but you can only have one parties ballot) --Blanket primary “Wide Open Primary” you can select any party for any position

Closed Primary Your ballot would look like this: GovernorStrickland (D) Smith (D) Trent (D) Richardson (D) Senator Brown (D) Collins (D) Dubois (D) Selby (D)

Blanket Primary Your ballot would look like this: GovernorStrickland (D) Smith (D) Taft (R) Richardson (R) Senator Brown (D) Collins (D) DeWine (R) Stewart (R)

PLURALITY In most states a candidate only has to win a Plurality of votes = the most votes of all the candidates

In 10 states a plurality will not work You must have an Absolute Majority -if no one wins a Run-Off primary ensues between the two candidates with the most votes from the previous election -the winner of the run off election becomes the nominee

NONPARTISAN Elections where the candidate does not declare a party.

The Price of Primaries $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ Very Expensive and usually only a small percentage of voters in a district even show up to vote! 25-30%

Presidential Primaries can also be very divisive! Democrats 2008 Biden Clinton Dodd Edwards Kucinich Obama Richardson

Presidential Primaries can also be very divisive! Republicans 2008 Guilianni Huckabee McCain Paul Romney Thompson

Do Average Joes run for election? Not really! It’s too darn expensive! -TV and newspaper ads -pamphlets -signs -bumper stickers

5. PETITION Unfortunately, the primaries focus on Name Recognition. Do you know the people on the next page?

NAME RECOGNITION Unfortunately, the primaries focus on Name Recognition. Do you know the people on this page?

ELECTIONS Americans hold more elections and vote more often than most other countries.

There are over 500,000 persons who hold elective office in America. Most election law is STATE not National law. National law dictates the dates of elections Congressional Elections (435 House reps and 1/3 of the Senate-every 2 years) are held the first Tuesday following the first Monday in November. Presidential Elections- are held every fourth year on the same date as congressional elections

HELP AMERICA VOTE ACT of 2002 In response to the voting fiasco in 2000 election *replace all lever operated and punch card voting devices *better training of poll workers *computerize voting registration *provide provisional voting

EARLY VOTING Absentee Voting- voting without going/showing up at the polls Originally for a small group of people ---ill, disabled and those who were going to be away on election day Now- many states allow anyone to vote early--OHIO

COATTAIL EFFECT When a Strong Candidate is running his/her party picks up many votes for their party members. The lesser known candidates ride the coattails of the strong candidate.

1. PRECINCT A. Voting District- example----Bainbridge Township 1. POLLING PLACE- one of the many places to vote in Bainbridge Township Example—KHS Bainbridge Town hall KMS etc.

See Geauga County Voting Precincts Located in My Documents

BALLOT Device by which a voter registers a choice in an election Each State has a Secret Ballot We used to make a choice on an Election Board!

Different types of Ballots Australian: printed at public expense, lists names of the candidates, given out only at polls is marked in secret Office Group: candidates for an office are grouped together under the title of that office (today the names are not always alphabetical, but they are rotated) Party Column: lists each parties candidates in a column under the party’s name—promotes straight ticket voting Sample: posted in newspapers to help voters get ready for the election Bedsheet: LENGHTY!!! Typical American ballot

AUTOMATED VOTING Over ½ of American votes are now cast on Machines and NOT hand counted -older style--- LEVER Operated Voting Machines

AUTOMATED VOTING Today – we see 1) Punch Card ballots that are read through a machine Also referred to as EDP- Electronic Data Processing

Butterfly Ballot 2000

AUTOMATED VOTING 2)Paper Ballots = Scantrons

3) Touch Screen Computers

VOTE BY MAIL First election of this sort in CA usually only used in local elections Oregon holds all elections like this since 1998 Saves $$$ but does it threaten the secret ballot?

ONLINE VOTING???? The future will tell if we go this route. What are the benefits/advantages of this type of voting? What are the disadvantages of this type of voting?

$$$$ and Elections What did you think about the Open Secrets online activity??? Candidates for office get money from different sources 1. Private individuals 2. Public Sources– Interest group--PACS, Businesses &Corporations, 527’s, Unions

WHY DO PEOPLE GIVE $$ ? This is a form of Political Participation It is considered FREE SPEECH Who regulates Campaign Money? FEC-Federal Election Commission

HOW MUCH CAN YOU GIVE? Upwards of $26, in one election Cash gifts of more than $100 are not allowed– you must write checks over $100 If you give more than $200 it becomes public knowledge

Any contribution of more than $5,000 must be reported to the FEC You can not give more than $2,100 to any one candidate in an election campaign. There are limits today, even though they may not seem like much, it used to be much worse.

Interpret Charts and graphs on pages 197 & 199

PACS Political Action Committees there are more than 4,000 today These are the political arms of special interest groups

HARD $$$ VS. SOFT $$$ Money given by individuals$$ used for “party building” activities Hard to getcandidate recruitment Used to elect candidatesget out the vote drives voter registration In the 1990’s the amount of Soft Money was getting out of control so a BIPARTISAN law was passed McCain ( R ) Feingold (D) bill or the BCRA to stop soft money Unfortunately this led to the creation of 527’s

Cost of Presidential Elections 1860 Abraham Lincoln spent $100,000. Stephen Douglas spent $50, Calvin Coolidge spent $4 million – Herbert Hoover spent $6 million George Bush spent $368 million. John Kerry spent $323 million It is expected to cost $400 million to win.

Bush raises record $100 million President Bush has been raising money for Republican candidates more aggressively than any of his predecessors and has topped the $100 million mark, by far the highest amount for any president after 19 months in office.

2008 Election

SHOW ME THE $$$$$ OBAMA raised over 744 Million!!! The money came from many small internet donors