The Electoral Process

1. The Electoral Process Chapter 7

2. The Nominating Process

3. A Critical First Step • Nomination • Naming those who will seek office. • Very Critical part of the process. • General Elections • Voters make the final elections of officeholders. • Five ways in which nominations are made in the U.S: • 1- Self-Announcement • 2- Caucus • 3- Convention • 4- Direct Primary • 5- Petition

4. Self Announcement • The method is simple. • A person who wants to run for office simply announces that fact. • Someone who failed to win a regular party nomination or by someone unhappy with the party’s choice.

5. The Caucus • A group of like minded people who meet to select the candidates they will support in an upcoming election.

6. The Convention • The delegates nominate candidates for county offices and select delegates to the next rung on the convention ladder, usually the State convention. • Country conventions pick the party’s nominees for governor and other state wide offices.

7. The Direct Primary • This in an intra party election. • It is held within a party to pick that party’s candidates for general election. • Two basic forms of direct primary. • Open Primary- is a party nominating election in which any qualified voter can take part. • Closed Primary- is a party nominating election in which only declared party members can vote.

8. Closed vs. Primary • 1- It prevents one party from raiding the other’s primary in the hope of nominating weaker candidates in the other party. • 2- It helps make candidates more responsive to the party, its platform, and its members. • 3- It helps make voters more thoughtful because they must chose between the parties in order to vote in the primaries.

9. Petition • Nominating method is used fairly widely at the local level in American politics today. • Most founded in a local level.

10. Elections

11. The Administration of Elections • Extent of Federal Control • Congress has powers to set times and places to vote. • When elections are held • Tuesday after the first Monday in November. • Early Voting • Those who are ill or disabled to make it. • Those who will be away from home. • Those serving in the armed services. • Cocktail Effect • Occurs when a strong candidate running for an office at the top of the ballot helps attract voters to other candidates on the party’s ticket.

12. Precincts and Polling Places • Precinct- is a voting district. • Polling Place- the place where the voters who live in a precinct actually vote-is located somewhere in or near each precinct.

13. Casting the Ballot • Australian Ballot • Office Group Ballot • The Party Column ballot • Sample Ballots • Bedsheets Ballots

14. Automated Voting • Electronic Vote Counting • Vote by Mail Elections • Online Voting

15. Money and Elections

16. Campaign Spending • No one knows how much money is spent. • Presidential Campaigns cost 1.5 billion. • How much depends on the office involved, the opposition, the candidate, whether she or he is the incumbent, and the availability of campaign funds.

17. Sources of Funding • Two basic sources: • Public treasury • Private contributions • Why People Give? • Belief in the party. • Want something in return. • Want appointments to public offices. • Want certain laws passed.

18. Regulating Campaign Finance • Congress does not have the power to regulate the use of money in State and local elections. • Every state now regulates at least some aspects of campaign finance, however some of them more effectively than others.

19. The Federal Election Commission • Disclosure Requirements • Limits on Contributions • PAC Contributions • Limits on Expenditures • Public Funding of Presidential Campaigns

20. Hard and Soft Money • Hard Money • Placed limits • Money raised and spent to elect candidates for Congress and the White House • Soft Money • Funds given to party organizations for such party-building activities as candidate recruitment, voter registration and get out the vote drives, and similar efforts.