1. WHAT’S DIFFERENT ABOUT US ELECTIONS? (Compared to other democracies)
We have half-a-million elected officials!
We hold separate federal/state elections and thus have a “permanent campaign”
States (mostly) control electoral rules, using varying registration and voting procedures
Elections instead of parties select our candidates
We use single member, plurality elections; Europe mostly uses multi-member, proportional representation
We mostly have no “second round” or “run-offs” for natl. office elections except for some primaries
We require racial gerrymandering (the 1965 Voting Rights Act; Reno v. Shaw, 1993)
We allow partisan gerrymandering
Districts must be the same size and thus frequently are “reapportioned”

2. WHAT ARE THE MAIN TYPES OF ELECTIONS IN THE US
WHAT ARE THE MAIN TYPES OF ELECTIONS IN THE US? (AND WHY IS THE WAY WE SELECT PRESIDENTS SO WACKY?)
Presidential, stage 1: What is the difference between a caucus and open/closed primaries? How do other democracies select their candidates?
Presidential, stage 2: What happens at the party “conventions”?
Presidential, stage 3: How does the electoral college work? Should we have a direct election for the president? Should we have run-offs?
How are Senate and House elections different from one another? Districts/electorate, incumbency (You may find it useful to review the pertinent parts of you textbook chapter on the Congress)
How are municipal elections different from national elections?: Multi-member, at-large contests vs. single member districts
What is “direct democracy” and who has this?: Initiatives, referenda, & recalls

3. US CAMPAIGNS: WHY ARE SO MANY VOTERS AND IMPORTANT ISSUES BEING IGNORED?
Do campaigns even matter? Why people used to vote:
Groups; SES; The psychology of party identification
Why did campaigns begin to matter (1980s-1990s)?
The rise in split ticket voting & expensive campaigns
Going directly to the voter: Direct primaries, TV, and now astroturf mobilization
The modern campaign (1990s forward)
Candidate qualities (or at least how they packaged) matter more
Professional candidates: winning is everything
Jobs for PSC folk: professional consultants, paid labor, and political science
Micro targeted campaigns and sophisticated polling/statistics: We aren’t mobilizing everyone anymore.
GOTV at the base rather than mass mobilizing the middle = nasty politics
Going negative to suppress turnout