Mcclain and Tauber Chapter 15: Voting and Elections - Exploring the Dynamics of the Electoral Process

Black

Many people thought bernie sanders had the democratic party nomination for president but theory all failed to recognize a major part of their voters:_______americans. In the South carolina primary: the question became For whom would Black voters and, in particular, black women cast their vote?

black

Biden and Sanders were in dead heat but then Biden received an endorsement from representative Jim Clyburn the house whip and the highest ranking black representative in congress.
Biden won 50 percent of all votes cast. Sanders on the other hand finished second with roughly 20 percent of the votes.
The key figure of the race was the fact that 61 percent of ______voters cast their vote for biden

south carolina

Many believed Biden Bid for the nomination may have very well fallen short had it not been for his victory in _____ _____powered by his overwhelming support from black voters.

representative

In a representative democracy, individuals can elect a _______ to present their views and make informed choices on their behalf and individuals have the ability to hold their representatives accountable by voting them out of office if they prove disatisfactory.

republic.

Elections and the electoral process are central to the workings of the ______

race, gender, age ethnicity region of the country

Yet the rates at which various groups of US citizens register to vote and then actually do vote vary greatly by ____, ____, ___, ____-, and ______of the country. The reasons for the differences are not simply reasons of personal preferences but in some cases historical and structural barriers account for the disparity.

Elections

the process by which individuals make political choices by voting.

say

In representative democracies, elections provide legitimacy to the system by giving individuals a _______in who runs their government and what policies are initiated.

NOT

The nomination process in the US is _____uniformed across offices or levels of government. The nomination procedure depends on whether the office is being sought, and nomination rules vary depending on whether the office is at the national, state, or local level.

STATES LOCAl

No matter what the level of office, however_____and ______government control the election process

caucuses, primary elections, party conventions

The three procedures for nomination are _____, ____ _____, and _____ _____

A caucus

is a private meeting of individuals or representations of political parties who choose delegates standing for or pledged to candidates running for particular offices.

elites

The first US caucuses were composed of private citizens who were prominent and active in politics in their communities. As political parties developed, these _____ assumed control of the caucus process. By the late 1790s, they used caucuses to chose congressional, state, and local candidates

presidential

Caucuses of congressional members of a political party would choose the party's _____nominees.

IOWA presidential caucuses

During the presidential election season, Americans hear a lot about the_______ _______ _____, the first presidential selection contest in the country for both democrats and republicans.

pledged delegates

These caucuses however do not directly choose the presidential candidate; they provide _____ ______: committed to a particular candidate at each political party’s sequence of convention from the local to the state to the national.

_____ ______: Party members elected or chosen at the state and local levels to support a particular candidate at the party’s national convention.

diverse

The 2020 democratic presidential party nominations process produced an interesting and ______set of candidates, the most _______group in democratic primary history.

unopposed

In essence Trump was ________ in the Republican primaries and caucasus. Some state republican parties cancles primaries or caucuses in order to note have challenges to president trump

large

Each state has a certain number of delegates to allocate. The number of delegates from each state varies based on how ______ the state is, when they vote, and how democratic they lean.

majority

In order to win the nomination, the democratic presidential candidate must win support from a ______ of the pledge delegates on the first ballot:

criteria

The IOWa caucus was the first place where Democrat and Republican voting began. Prior to the caucus, the democrats had held seven presidential primary debates with varying numbers of candidates based on whether they were able to meet the ____________for participation set by the democratic national committee.

50

Obama had a ______state strategy where he paid early attention to caucus states and it was integral in his strategy to win the 270 electoral votes he needed in the general elections

Direct primaries

Primary elections for state and local offices are for US house and senate nominations are ____ _____, in which voters select the individual to present the party in the general election by voting directly for the candidates on the ballot.

Direct primaries:

______- Elections in which voters select the individual to represent the party in the general election by voting directly for the candidates on the ballot

By contrast in a presidential primary election, voters vote for delegates committed to a candidate. These delegates then cast their votes at the political party's national convention to choose the party’s presidential candidate.

Closed primary

a primary in which only registered members of a particular party can vote in that party's primary election to choose the party's candidate or delegate
The most rigid form of a closed primary is one in which a voter must be registered to vote with a political party affiliation in advance of the primary election. (state law determines the date by which people must be registered to vote to participate in a primary election)

crossover voting

Closed primaries are intended to ensure that only voters who are identified as party members will have input into the selection of the party candidate to prevent _____ _____-, in which voters registered as members of one political party would have input into the selection of a candidate from another party.

Closed primaries also help contribute to strong party organization.

Political independents

must declare a party affiliation to vote in such closed primaries

partially closed

In some states they have a _____ ______primary system that is more flexible and voters may change their political party affiliation on election day or in the weeks close to the election. Under the ______ ______primary system, state law allows political parties the option of choosing whether to allows political independent or voters who are not registered with the party to participate in nomination process prior to each election cycle

Open primary

a primary election in which a voter does not have to declare a political affiliation but may participate in the primary elections of any party.

In some of these states, voters must request the primary ballot of one particular party at the polls. In other states, voters do not have to declare a party affiliation and they can vote in which primary they wish to vote when they get to the polls and request a ballot for that political party's primary.

partially open

Six states have _____ ______primaries where voters can cross party lines. Under the partially open primary system, either voters are required to publicly to declare their ballot choice or their ballot selection may be classified as a form of registration with a party

unaffiliated voters

Nine states have systems that are open to _____ _____-: these states allow only unaffiliated voters to participate in any party primary they choose, but do not allow voters who are registered with one party to vote in another party’s primary. This system does not allow cross over voting.

weaken

Open primaries______-political parties' influence over the nomination process because they permit individuals who are not registered as members of the party to vote in the party's primary.

political independents.

Supporters of the open primary method argue that voters should be able to participate freely in primaries without having to reveal their political preferences or give up their status as ______ ______

top-two” primary system

California and Washington state use a “_____ ______ _______. The top two format has all of the candidates for an office on the same ballot. In California, candidates list their party affiliation while in Washington, candidates list their party preference. In this system the top two vote getters advance to the general election. What this means is that two democrats or two republicans or one from each party could face off during the general election.

plurality system

Most primaries use a ______ ______ in which the candidate who receives the most votes is the winner._______-: winning of an election by the candidate who receives the most voters (also known as first past the post)

majority system

Nine souther and border states use a ___ ______in which winning requires receiving more than half of the votes cast. If no candidate receives a majority of the vote in the initial primary election, the top two vote getters face each other in a runoff primary.

Majority: winning of an election by the candidate who receives at least 51 percent of the vote

Runoff primary

a second election held in some states if no candidate in the primary election receives a majority of the votes.
___ ______ was viewed by party officials as a means of ensuring party strength and unity behind one candidate and preventing independent challenges to that candidate.

blacks

Racial motives were also at work, as many of the southern states that passed bills imposing a primary runoff provision stated explicitly that the intent was to ensure that whites maintained political control by making it difficult, if not impossible, for______- to participate in the primary process.

Super tuesday

on march 3, when 14 states hold primaries

Party conventions

are assemblies held by political parties to nominate candidates, set party rules, and develop a party platform- statement of the principles and policy positions of the party.

conventions

Every four years, the democratic, republican ,a dn libertarian parties climax the presidential primary season with a convention to nominate their presidential candidate and write the party platform among other things. These conventions are held the summer before the November election. Presidential candidates through either caucus or primary vote, gather pledged delegates who will vote for the candidates at the party's convention.

population

Both political parties assign each state a specific number of delegates based on _______, the number of votes that are cas during the primaries and caucuses and other factors. In order to win the nomination, the democratic presidential candidate must win support from a majority of pledged delegates on the first ballot. Should the convention be contested (when a party nominee is not selected by a majority in the first round of delegate voting at the party's nominating convention) and go to a second ballot of more, super delegates will be able to vote. The candidate who receives the majority of support from all delegates wins the nomination.

unbound delegates.

unpledged delegates which are referred to as ____ _____

conventions

Although primaries are the predominant method of selecting candidates for national or statewide office, 13 states either permit or require______ for the nomination process. Some states permit political parties to use conventions of primaries to nominate their candidates for national and statewide office.

election law

State political parties decide whether they will nominate candidates in primaries or conventions but they must follow state _____ ______ in carrying out their choice.

third party

Although caucuses and primaries are important tools for established political parties to chose their candidates they are not advantageous for independents and ____ _____vcandidates.

nomination petitions

third party candidates might have to take out ______ _____-and collect a specified number of signatures from registered voters to qualify for inclusion on a ballot. Collecting signatures on nomination petitions can be difficult if the number of signatured is sufficiently large that the candidate might have to use volunteers or employ people to circulate petitions.

democratic convention

The platform committee submitted a 92 page document that was a combination of progressive ideas from bernie sanders and vice presidents more moderate approach to issues. While there might have been differences in the discussion, the platform was voted out of committee and presented to the convention.
It had 17 key note speakers, 11 of whom were people of color/ There was controversy over the lack of latino representation.
All 57 american states and territories delegation presented aspects of their state or territories that were unique to them. Ater the official nomination of former vice president biden as the democratic presidential nominee and senator harris ad the vice presidential nominee, each gave their acceptance speeches on different nights from convention center

The Republican Convention

President trump then moved the convention to Jacksonville, where governor ron desantis assured him that he could have the event as he wanted. But the increase in covid cases caused this to be canceled. The convention then returned to charlotte for one day of limited in person attendance to officially nominate donald trump as the republican presidential nominee on august 24, 2020.
The convention then turned into a virtual convention with Trump giving his acceptance speech from the south lawn of the white house.
For the first time, the republican party did not develop a party platform to be submitted at the convention. This resolution simply reaffirmed he platform adopted by the 2016 convention
Had way more black speakers in 2020

General elections

elections in which the winner is elected to office and takes office after the end of the term of the current officeholder.
These elections take place on dates specified by state or federal law.
In 1845, Congress passed legislation that established the general election date for presidential elections as the first Tuesday after the first Monday in november. As a result, almost all general elections for federal offices- president, house and senate- and for most state offices occur on the same November date.

The electoral college

was created by the founders for several reasons, the most important being to keep the people from having a direct say in the election of the president. The founders were suspicious of direct election of the president because they feared that voters could be manipulated and, as a result, that an unsuitable person could be elected president.
To avoid this possibility, the founders established a system whereby individuals voted for electors, initially chosen by the state legislators and now by the political parties, who would then cast their vote for president at a later date. The founders believed that, unlike the public, the electors could not be manipulated; they would ensure that only people acceptable to the leaders of the country were elected president and the public's preferences were not to be considered.

political parties

Today, Presidential electors are chosen by _____ ______ and each party has a slate of electors. When individuals go to the polls, they are actually voting for the electors committed to a presidential candidate and not directly for the candidate.

day

Although the constitution does not prescribe how states are to select their electors, in 1845 congress passed legislation that electors may be appointed on the tuesday after the first monday in november every fourth year which is the reason elections of the president and of all nationally elected officials as a result occur on the same ________in November

electors

In some states, the names of the ______are listed to the presidential candidate who they are committed, but in other states, the names are not listed

winner take all

In 48 states, the presidential candidate who wins the most votes in the state receives all of that state's electoral votes; this is the ____ ______ _____rule.

Winner take all

an election system in which the candidate who gets the most voted in that district wins the election, even if he or she has not received a majority of the votes and had finished only a few voted ahead of the second place finisher

proportional allocation

Only two states, Nebraska and Maine, allocate electoral votes via ______ _____. In each state, two electors are chosen at large by state-wide popular vote and the rest are selected by the popular vote in each congressional district.

_______ ________ A method of allocating a state’s electoral votes on a basis other than winner take all. In Nebraska and Maine, electoral votes are allocated based on the state-wide popular vote and the popular vote and the popular vote in each congressional district.

december

The electors from each state meet on the first monday after the second wednesday in ________and cast their votes for president.

state's

The supreme court has found that the constitution does not make electors free agents in their voting for president and thus that state laws could be passed to require electors to vote for the presidential candidate who won the ______ popular vote and for political parties to extract pledges from electors to vote for the party's nominee.

vote

In 16 states, electors are under no constitutional or statutory requirement to _____-for the person who they are pledged but most do so by custom.

penalties

Some states also have________ in place to punish electors who do not cast their ballot in the legally prescribed manner.

remote.

Over the decades, there have been many calls for the abolition of the electoral college or an overhaul of the method of distributing electoral votes.
Some people to say make it a direct election. Others say keep the electoral college but to apportion electoral votes based on the proportion of a state's vote that a candidate reeves. A third proposal is to allocate a state's electoral votes based on which candidate wins the popular vote in each congressional districts. Nebraska and maine already allocate their electoral votes in this way
Because each state makes its own determination as to how its electoral votes will be apportioned, these last two proposals mean that each state would have to decide to switch to a system that allocates electoral votes in some fashion other than the current winner take all system.
The probability that the electoral college will be eliminated is _______

large

The all or nothing method of apportioning the electoral gives an advantage to ______- states with large numbers of electoral votes and these factors are enduring and powerful.

Candidates must be organized.

The election of individuals to public offices in general elections does not just happen. Candidates put together campaign staff, hire consultants, map strategies, and use polling for targeting specific groups of voters. Campaigns must also encourage their seats to vote early when available and on election day. Candidates must also raise money to pay for everything they need to win. Thus, to be elected, _____ ______ _______ ______

gear.

After securing the nomination, the major party nominees face each other in the general election. At this point, campaigns go into full _____

develop

At the presidential level, candidates ______-a strategy that will best secure a majority of electoral votes. Presidential selection constituted 51 separate election to award electoral votes

little

Prior to the 2008, presidential candidates typically did not focus on the entire nation, instead they focused their resources in vote rich states and tending to avoid those states in which they had ______ chance of winning. THERE ARE 9 STATES THAT MAKE UP 243 out of 270

everywhere

In 2008, obama focused ______-. His strategy was to pursue as many combinations as possible to reach 270 electoral votes.

middle class

Clinton campaign strategy was to focus on convincing voters to support her by appealing to the_ _____ _____s, and highlighting her electability by emphasizing that she has the skills necessary for governing the country.

local

During the primary season, clinton's campaign employed a hyper local strategy, identifying a ______-issue that was of interest to democratic voters in each state and then championing that issue.

two

The general election campaigns entails _____-parts- the "ground war" and the "air war"

Ground war

the part of election campaigns conducted using "pavement pounding" methods, including candidate public appearances, voter registration, and mobilization, fundraising, and public opinion, among others

Air war

consists of advertisements on tv, radio, and print. In recent years, presidential campaigns have been waged on the internet, twitter and facebook, with all major candidates hosting campaign websites and having twitter feeds.

debates

Presidential and vice presidential candidates also face each other in a series of televised _______: important public face-offs between candidates discussing issues in a variety of formats (including traditional question and answer sessions as well as town hall forums) and through a variety of media, most important television and, more recently, the internet.

Debates

_______disadvantage minor party candidates. Only once has the commission agreed to allow an independent candidate to participate in the debates.

Americans

The two major parties' domination over presidential debates undoubtedly excludes many______ from the process.

Money

_______is undoubtedly the most important factor in presidential elections.

money

Travel, advertising, support staff, and overhead require a great deal of _______. Big business began to play a major role in campaign financing in the election of grant and became truly integrated into politics and fundraising with the presidential election of 1896.

FECA

As soon as candidates began to solicit funds from big business, legislation was passed to try to keep these funds out of the process of at least limit their influence;
In addition to regulating campaign financing, the amendment ________ set up the federal elections commission in 1975 to administer and enforce feca.

BCRA

Congress passed the _________which further amended FECA to strength the limits, regulations, and reporting fo campaign contributions. _______: a campaign finance reform law passed in 2002 that amended the federal election campaign act of 1971 and strengthens the limits, regulations, and reporting of campaign contributions.

_______-limited individual contributions to 2800. So this could be given to a candidate in primary and general elections. Primary, general,, and run off elections are each considered separate elections.

closed soft money loop hole

BCRA act bans soft money and prohibits candidates from using leadership PACS which are created to circumvent spending limits in promoting issues.

Soft money

the less regulated mone that is raised by political party to support and maintain the party.

black out periods

The ac allows candidates who decide to forego Public funding [the financing of election campaigns by the American Public through tax allocations as distinct from private fundraising by candidates] for their campaigns to spend without limits, although contribution limits still apply

Citizens united v FEC

The Supreme court ruled that corporations and unions have the same political speech rights as individuals and thus are able to spend unlimited amounts of money to support their political candidates and PACs.

messages

During a campaign, candidates use a number of avenues to display their ______- and to gauge how the public is reacting to them. Campaign commercials and public appearances, coupled with polling and media interviews are some of the most important mechanisms. New forms of technology in the campaign are now being used to expand a candidate's message beyond traditional election approaches.

money

Candidates invest incredible amounts of _____ in campaign advertising, which includes not only posters and buttons, but also professional campaign commercials. Purchasing expensive airtime results in the production of 30 second advertisements that are short on substance and long on symbolism. It is difficult to determine a candidate's stance from these 30 second features, but they are designed to strike at some value or chord in a targeted group of voters that will pull them toward one candidate and away from another.

airtime

Few candidates can afford to purchase_______ to make a half hour speech, and many campaign consultants will say that few Americans would listen. Yet in 2008, Obama purchased 30 mins of airtime to talk to the American public.

negative campaign

Another aspect of campaign advertising is the use of _____ _______ advertisements. Although the American electorate decries it, this type of advertising is extremely effective in putting opponents on the defensive and eroding their support.

opposition.

Most campaign staffs, whether national or local, retain people form opposition research, finding ethical lapses, past problems, or questionable behavior that they can use to undermine the public's confidence in and support for the ______

Opposition research

campaign activity devoted to undermining the public's confidence in and support of a candidate in and support of a candidate, a key component of negative campaigning.
Often campaigns use this opposition material in ways that raise ethical concerns - some candidates have played the race card

racial appeals

Bush was not the first presidential candidate to resort to_____ _________. Barry Goldwater's 1964 and Nixon's 1960 relied implicitly on racial appeals. Ronald Regan continually used a "welfare queen" anecdote and others on the campaign trail that were code words for race.

voting

Most elections in the United States are decided by a plurality, the candidate who receives the most votes, or a majority, the candidate who receives more than 50 percent of the votes cast in a given election. In a majority system, if no candidate receives 51 percent of the vote, then a run off election is held between the top two vote- getters

plurality

Most elections for the US house of representative and senate are decided by a _______ of the votes. In a plurality, or first past the post, electoral system, a candidate can win with any number of votes as long as its more votes than anyone else has received.

president

The process by which the us elects president is a combination of a plurality system and a majority system which adds complexity to understanding, the process of electing the ______

plurality system

The votes Americans cast in the presidential election on election day are actually votes for the slate of electors who are committed to each presidential candidate. All of the states use a ______ ______for determining which slate of electors wins the states' electoral votes.

denying

The US has had a history of _________the vote to certain citizens, experiences lower voter turnout rates than many other counties and exhibits differences in voter registration and turnout rates based on race, gender, socioeconomic class, and a number of other dimensions.

important

Political scientist have learned that people who follow elections in newspapers or on television, who have a high level of interest in political campaigns, and who overall are interested in political and public affairs and follow them closely are more likely to believe that voting is an_____thing to do than are those who are not interested in politics and public affairs.

lower

The United states has _____ voter turnout rates than those in many counties.

Voting eligible population (VEP)

the population of us citizens age 18 or older. Voter turnout decline continually from 1960 to 1984, jumped up and down a bit between 1984 and 1996, and then steadily increased from 2000 to 2008. The turnout rate dropped marginally in 2012, but increased marginally again in 2016. Yet the 2020 turnout rate increased tremendously, rising to an estimate of 66.8 percent.

voting age population (VAP)

Often the ________) which includes both citizens and noncitizens, is used to calculate voter turnout rates.

______ the population of both citizens and noncitizens in the US age 18 or older.