The Electoral Process © nperskine 2013

In the United States, the election process occurs in two steps: 1. Nomination, in which the field of candidates is narrowed 2. General election, the regularly scheduled election where voters make the final choice of officeholder © nperskine 2013

Three Ways to Nominate © nperskine 2013

Types of Direct Primaries The Direct Primary Types of Direct Primaries Closed Primary Only declared party members can vote. Open Primary Any qualified voter can take part. Blanket Primary Qualified voters can vote for any candidate, regardless of party Runoff Primary If a required majority is not met, the two people with the most votes run again Nonpartisan Primary Candidates are not identified by party labels © nperskine 2013

Primaries Across the United States © nperskine 2013

Petition Candidates must gather a required number of voters’ signatures to get on the ballot by means of petition. Minor party and independent candidates are usually required by State law to be nominated by petition. Petition is often used at the local level to nominate for school posts and municipal offices. © nperskine 2013

The Administration of Elections Elections are primarily regulated by State law, but there are some overreaching federal regulations. Congress has the power to set the time, place, and manner of congressional and presidential elections. First Tuesday after the first Monday in November of every even-numbered year for congressional elections, with the presidential election being held the same day every fourth year. States determine the details of the election of thousands of State and local officials. Most States provide for absentee voting, for voters who are unable to get to their regular polling places on election day. © nperskine 2013

Precincts and Polling Places A precinct is a voting district. Look up your Secretary of State’s website to find your local precinct. Precincts are the smallest geographic units used to carry out elections. Polling Places A polling place is where the voters who live in a precinct go to vote. It is located in or near each precinct Convenient location © nperskine 2013

History of the Ballot (Back in the Day…) Voting was initially done orally. It was considered “manly” to speak out your vote without fear of reprisal. Paper ballots used in mid-1800s. People provided their own ballots. Then, political machines began to take advantage of the flexibility of the process to intimidate, buy, or manufacture votes. In the late 1800s, ballot reforms cleaned up ballot fraud by supplying standardized, accurate ballots © nperskine 2013

Office-Group and Party-Column Ballots © nperskine 2013

Voting Machines and Innovations Electronic vote counting has been in use since the 1960s. Punch-card ballots are often used to cast votes. The problems with online voting: Advantages? Disadvantages? (Canada and Estonia case study) © nperskine 2013

Campaign Spending 1 2 © nperskine 2013 Chapter 7, Section 3

Democratic Candidate (Gross receipts) Republican Candidate (Gross receipts) Winner (Receipts difference; % difference) Obama ($1.1 billion) Romney ($931 million) Obama Obama ($750 million) John Kerry ($328,479,245) McCain ($238 million) George W. Bush ($367,228,801) George W. Bush (+$38,749,556; +11%) Al Gore ($132,804,039) George W. Bush ($193,088,650) George W. Bush (+$60,284,611; +31%) Bill Clinton ($41,697,305) Bob Dole ($57,840,610) Bill Clinton (-$16,143,305; -28%) Bill Clinton (~$71,000,000) George H.W. Bush (~$62,400,000) Bill Clinton (~+$8,600,000; ~+12%) © nperskine 2013

Regulating Campaign Financing Early campaign regulations were created in 1907, but feebly enforced. The Federal Election Campaign Act (FECA) of 1971 was passed to replaced the former, ineffective legislation. The FECA Amendments of 1974 were passed in response to the Watergate scandal. Buckley v. Valeo : most of the limits campaign spending don’t apply to individual money raising (mainly applies to government funding). © nperskine 2013

The Federal Election Commission (FEC) enforces: the timely disclosure of campaign finance information limits on campaign contributions limits on campaign expenditures provisions for public funding of presidential campaigns © nperskine 2013

Loopholes in the Law “More loophole than law…” —Lyndon Johnson Soft money—money given to State and local party organizations for “party-building activities” that is filtered to presidential or congressional campaigns. $500 million was given to campaigns in this way in 2000. Independent campaign spending—a person unrelated and unconnected to a candidate or party can spend as much money as they want to benefit or work against candidates. Issue ads—take a stand on certain issues in order to criticize or support a certain candidate without actually mentioning that person’s name (“this ad endorsed by…”) © nperskine 2013