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Chapter 7, Section 1
Campaigns & Elections
Objective 2.1
Chapter 7, Section 1
Objectives What methods are used to choose candidates?
How are elections conducted in the U.S?
What role does money play in politics?
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Introduction
• What methods are used to choose candidates for public office?
• Candidates are nominated for public office through:• Self-announcement • Caucus• Convention• Direct primary• Petition
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The Nominating Process
• What is a nomination?
• The process of selecting the candidates who will seek public office. It is a key function of American political parties.
• In our two-party system, the nominating process puts limits on the choices available to voters in the general election.
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Self-Announcement• A person who wants to run for office can simply announce that fact.
• Whenever a write-in candidate appears, self-announcement has been used.
Why might wealthy candidates favor self-
announcement?
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The Caucus• A caucus is a group of people who meet to select candidates for election
• In the early republic, key party members met in caucuses to nominate candidates.
• Party members in State legislatures held caucuses to nominate candidates for State offices, while party caucuses in Congress nominated presidential candidates.
• Caucuses were criticized as being too small, private, and out of touch with everyday party members.
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The Convention• Conventions replaced caucuses.
• Party voters choose delegates who attend conventions, where they pick party candidates and elect delegates to attend higher level conventions.
• Conventions were soon controlled by party bosses.
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The Direct Primary
• By law, the direct primary is now the nominating method used by the major parties in most States.
• Qualified voters cast private ballots for their preferred candidate. The person receiving the most votes is nominated.
• The States regulate and conduct party primaries.
• A closed primary is closed to all but declared members of a party. Usually this means being a registered party member.
• An open primary is open to all qualified voters.
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Open vs. Closed Primaries
• Closed primaries …• help make candidates more responsive to their party• force voters to choose a party affiliation• keep the opposing party from “raiding” a primary and picking the weakest candidates.
• Open primaries…• do not exclude independent voters. • In many cases, open primary voters can also keep their choice of party private.
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Forms of Primaries in State Elections
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Evaluating Primaries
• What are the benefits and drawbacks of primaries?
• Benefits: • puts the nominating process into the hands of the everyday party members.
• Drawbacks include:• primaries make campaigns more expensive• voter turnout in primaries is usually less than half what it is for general elections.
• emphasizes name familiarity over talent • can cause divisions within a party.
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Petition• At the local level:• candidates may be nominated by petitions
• signed by a minimum number of qualified voters in the election district.
• Many States require…• minor party and independent candidates to be nominated by petition.
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Elections• How are elections conducted in the United States?
• Elections are conducted by qualified voters casting secret ballots under the supervision of precinct election boards.
• Depending upon State and local laws, voters may cast ballots within precincts at polling places on election day, at polling places just before election day, or by mail-in absentee ballot in the weeks leading up to the election.
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• The Help America Vote Act of 2000 requires States to:
• replace lever-operated and punch-card voting machines
• improve their administration of elections
• computerize voter registration systems
• allow provisional voting
Administering Elections
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Early Voting• What is early voting?• involves casting ballots BEFORE election day.• States have greatly expanded early voting in recent years.
• Voters can apply for absentee ballots in advance• mail them to their local election office before election day.
• Two-thirds of the States also let voters cast ballots at polling places for a period of several days before election day.
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What Happens to a Ballot?
• Paper ballots • collected and taken to a counting facility.
• Absentee ballots • mailed to the counting facility or brought to the polling place.
• Electronic ballots • sent electronically or stored and sent manually.
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The Coattail Effect
• A strong candidate for an office at the top of a ballot can attract voters to other candidates on the party’s ticket.
• A weak candidate, on the other hand, can cost a party votes.
• Holding State and local elections on different days from federal elections might reduce this coattail effect.
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Precincts and Polling Places
• Precincts are small voting districts with a polling place in or near them.
• Precinct election boards supervise the voting process, opening and closing the polls at times set by State law.
• Precinct boards must also ensure that ballots and voting devices are available and that only qualified voters cast ballots. They often count votes as well.
• Each party can have a poll watcher at a polling place to monitor the process.
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Casting Ballots • Ballots can take many forms, from paper
sheets to electronic records.
• Voting was once public, but now every State requires the use of a secret ballot.
• By 1900, most States used the Australian Ballot, which remains the basic form of ballot used today. This ballot type:• Is printed at public expense• Lists the names of all candidates• Is given out only at the polls• Is marked in secret
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Electronic Vote Counting
• Voting systems based on electronic data processing include optical scanners and direct response electronic voting machines.
• Some fear that DRE’s could be attacked by computer hackers.
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Online Voting• Online voting may be the wave of the future, having been used on a small scale in presidential primaries.
• Pros: • Convenient• less expensive• likely to increase voter participation.
• Cons: • technical problems• computer viruses• hackers • not all Americans can afford a home computer.
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Money & Politics• What role does money play in electoral politics?
• The amount of money spent on political campaigns is huge and grows with each election cycle.
• Some of the rising campaign expenses include items like advertising (with TV ads being most expensive), polls, mass mailings, campaign staff, and travel.
• The ability to raise money is thus critical for federal office seekers.
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Campaign Spending
• In 2008, presidential candidates spent some $2.5 billion.
• In September alone, Obama and McCain each spent an average of:• $25.2 million on TV and radio ads
• $4.1 million on travel • $2 million on campaign worker salaries
• $800,000 on polls
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• Some $1.5 billion was spent on House and Senate contests in 2008.
• It now costs about $1 million to run for a House seat, and up to 20 times that to campaign for a Senate seat.
Campaign Spending, cont.
What factors may account for the rise seen in the chart to the right?
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Sources of Funding
• Where do campaign contributions come from? • private givers, such as small contributors,
• wealthy individuals, • political action committees (PACs), • temporary fundraising groups, • candidates themselves.
• Campaigns, particularly presidential campaigns, receive public funds from federal and state treasuries as well.
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Sources of Funding
• The Internet has become a major fundraising tool, particularly for outsider candidates.
• Candidates also raise money through telethons and fundraising dinners.
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Regulating Finance
• Congress regulates the use of money in federal elections. • It passed the most recent campaign finance law in 2002.• Federal laws require:• the disclosure of campaign finances• limit contributions and expenditures• provide federal funding for presidential elections.
• The Federal Election Commission often struggles to enforce campaign finance laws due to a lack of staff and funds.
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Disclosure Requirements
• Each candidate has a single committee responsible for all campaign spending and recording all campaign contributions.
• Contributions over $200 must be identified by date, purpose, and the name of the giver. Contributions of more than $5,000 must be reported to the FEC.
• Cash gifts of more than $100 are prohibited, as are contributions and spending from foreign sources.
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Limits on Contributions
• No person can give over $2,300 to a federal candidate in a primary or general election.
• No person can give more than $5,000 to a PAC or $28,500 to a national party in a single year.
• No person can give more than $108,200 total in a two-year election cycle.
• Before these limits were imposed in 1974, individuals often gave larger amounts.
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PAC Contributions
• More than 4,000 political action committees (PACs) are active today:
• Most represent special interest groups such as business associations and labor unions. They can raise money only from members.
• Other PACs are unconnected committees that can raise money from the public.
• No PAC can give more than $5,000 to a candidate in a primary or general election. But a PAC can give to as many candidates as it chooses and give up to $15,000 a year to a political party.
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Public Funding• The Presidential Election Campaign Fund, established in 1971, uses taxpayer money to help fund pre-convention campaigns, national party conventions, and presidential election campaigns.
• The system is set up so that only candidates with national organizations can qualify for funding.
• If a presidential candidate accepts public funding for the general election, his or her campaign cannot take funds from any other source and is limited in what it can spend.
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Hard and Soft Money
• Federal law puts limits on hard money:• contributions given directly to candidates.
• In the 1980s, the major parties began raising millions in unregulated soft money:• funds given to parties or political organizations.
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Hard and Soft Money
• In 2002, the McCain-Feingold Law banned soft-money contributions to political parties.
• But independent political groups, often called “527s,” still can and do raise millions in soft money.
