Key Ideas from Chapter 12: Elections and Campaigns

Some states rely on majority voting, which means that a candidate must get more than 50 percent of the vote to win. If no candidate wins a majority, then there is a runoff election between the top two finishers.

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State law determines both the timing of the primary and whether the primary will be open or closed.

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State primaries and caucuses held early in the season can have a significant impact on presidential candidate success, so states compete over scheduling.

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States have maintained control of ballot access to this day.

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Straight-ticket voting - selection of a party's candidates across all offices on the ballot.

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The BCRA essentially replaced legislation from 1971 that limited the amount that individuals, organizations, and political action committees (PACs) could donate to election campaigns.

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The BCRA updated FECA by increasing the limits on individual spending and banning unregulated soft money donations to political parties.

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The Constitution requires that elections to choose our national leaders be held every two years.

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The Democrats chose to hold their first national nominating convention in 1828 in order to take control of the nominating process away from Congress—or "King Caucus."

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The Electoral College is made up of representatives from each state who cast votes for the president and vice president.

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The Electoral College was established by the Constitution, although the document does not actually refer to it by that name. Article II, section 1 of the Constitution mentions electors that are to be responsible for selecting the president and vice president.

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The Internet is becoming increasingly fertile ground for campaigning. Candidates now use it to raise funds and to advertise themselves and their positions.

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The U.S. electoral map is subdivided into single-member congressional districts in which the candidate with the majority vote wins. This type of arrangement naturally encourages a governing party and an opposition party—that is, a winner and a loser.

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The level of office and the constituents of the district or state can also influence the strategy and tactics used by a candidate. A candidate running for a U.S. Senate seat must appeal to a much broader range of interests in his campaign than would a candidate running for a seat in the U.S. House.

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One is a party-oriented strategy, in which a candidate relies on the party's platform and record, as well as the organization's resources, to appeal to voters' partisan identification.

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Open primary - a type of primary election in which voters do not have to be registered with a political party in order to participate in voting for that party's nominees.

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Part of the reason that campaigns in the United States are more candidate-centered than campaigns found in other advanced industrial democracies is a consequence of the structure of the American electoral system.

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Plurality voting - a system in which the single winner of the most votes wins the election (even if the candidate does not capture a majority of the vote).

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Political campaigns adopt strategies and employ tactics depending on a number of factors related to the stage in the election cycle, the level of office sought, the characteristics of the state or district, the degree of competition for the seat, and the financial resources available to the candidate.

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Political legitimacy - the view of citizens that their government has the lawful authority to govern.

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Political reforms have also shaped campaigns and elections. One of the major aims of the Progressive movement of the late 19th century was electoral reform. The Progressives criticized the methods used by political machines and party bosses to influence election outcomes. Voting during this period was not secretive; parties printed, distributed, and collected electoral ballots. These tickets were often coded with party colors or symbols so that illiterate voters would not be confused.

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Primary election - an election conducted within a political party to select its candidates for the general election.

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Primary elections and caucuses are held over a five-month period beginning in January.

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Running a campaign is an expensive and time-consuming affair, so presidential candidates tend to put a lot of their resources into the early primaries to establish themselves as viable and to create momentum for their campaigns.

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Soft money - unregulated donations to party organizations to cover their operational expenses.

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The majority of states use primary elections to nominate the candidates for each party. About ten states use caucuses to nominate the party candidates.

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The new limits on hard and soft money do not appear to have had a negative impact on either party's ability to raise funds since the regulations went into effect.

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One important consequence of this reform effort was that the government assumed responsibility for deciding who could access the ballot.

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*Congressional Elections* The first step for a congressional candidate pursuing a seat in the House or the Senate is to qualify for the state ballot, which can be accomplished by either winning the nomination of a party or gathering enough signatures on a petition to run independent of a party.

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*Presidential Elections* The rules governing the nomination and election of the president and vice president are slightly different from those governing congressional elections.

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A presidential candidate's goal is to win the most delegates in each state.

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A second basic strategy is an issue-oriented strategy, which is directed at groups of Americans with strong preferences toward policy on specific issues.

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A third strategy is a candidate-oriented strategy; a candidate using this strategy organizes the campaign efforts around his or her personal characteristics, such as experience, leadership capacity, and integrity.

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Although the Constitution has since been amended to allow for the direct election of U.S. senators by voters, and all states now select their presidential electors through popular election, the initial decision to limit citizen selection of national leaders was intentional.

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American elections encourage citizens to feel that the government has political legitimacy. The electoral process was designed by the Founders to allow for fair competition between citizens with differing views on what government should do.

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American elections ensure political legitimacy through indirect representation and popular participation.

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An individual may donate up to $30,400 per year to a national party committee and $10,000 per year to state and local party committees. The limit on PAC spending was maintained at $5,000.

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An open or closed primary system can be modified to allow the parties to decide whether to allow voters who are not registered with any party to vote in the primary.

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Another advantage is that this system allows for small states to exert influence over the presidential selection process.

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Another disadvantage of the Electoral College system is that it concentrates campaign activity in battleground or swing states, which are those in which support for the major candidates is evenly divided.

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As cumbersome as it may be, the logic behind our electoral system was clearly laid out in the Constitution—the Founders wanted popular participation through indirect representation, and they designed the process to be slow and deliberative.

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As former House Speaker Thomas (Tip) O'Neill once observed, "There are four parts to any campaign: the candidate, the issues of the candidate, the campaign organization, and the money to run the campaign with. Without money you can forget the other three."

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At the most basic level, elections allow citizens to control government. Through elections, voters communicate their preferences to elected leaders by rewarding or punishing them for their actions.

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Before candidates for each of these offices can be elected, however, they must be nominated.

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Before the 17th Amendment was ratified in 1913, state legislatures selected U.S. senators. Even today, voters in their respective states appoint electors who participate in choosing each president through the institution of the Electoral College.

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Campaign financing for federal elections is currently regulated by the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act (BCRA), which took effect for the 2004 election.

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Campaign strategies vary depending on the stage in the election cycle, the level of office sought, the character of the constituency, and the resources of the candidate.

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Caucus - a local meeting of party members in which the party's nominee is selected.

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Closed primary - a type of primary election in which voters are required to be registered with a political party in order to participate in voting for that party's nominees.

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Concern about these effects of the Electoral College has led to a number of congressional proposals to replace the current system with a nationwide popular vote. None of these proposals has successfully passed Congress.

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During the 1880s, states across the country moved to use secret ballots. Voters were provided with a full list of all candidates running for office and given a private space to cast their votes in secret. This step marked a major shift in electoral politics. While it drastically reduced the potential for voter fraud and intimidation, it undercut the power of parties to control the outcomes of election.

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One disadvantage of the Electoral College system is that a candidate can win the popular vote nationally and still lose the election, as happened in the 2000 contest between George W. Bush and Al Gore.

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Each of these tactics is aimed at achieving the ultimate goal of winning political office. While the strategies and tactics employed by candidates may vary, one overarching trend in the evolution of American political campaigns is apparent—campaigns have become more focused on the individual candidates than on the parties they represent.

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Elections bring about change. In democratic societies, the hope is that this change can be peaceably secured.

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Elections today include more citizen involvement than the Founders may have intended.

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Electoral College - an institution created by the Constitution to permit indirect election of the president.

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Electoral votes - the presidential vote choices of electors who have been selected through the state popular vote to participate in the Electoral College.

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Every two years, voters head to the polls to select all 435 members of the House and one-third of all members of the Senate. Every fourth year, voters also indirectly select the president and vice president.

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Frontloading - the phenomenon of states moving their primaries earlier and earlier in the election season in order to have more influence over the selection of party presidential nominees.

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General election - a national election held every two years as required by the Constitution.

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General elections held in the even-numbered years between presidential elections are known as congressional elections, midterm elections, or off-year elections.

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General elections in which the president and vice president are selected take place every four years and are known as presidential elections.

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Hard money - donations given directly to a candidate for congressional office or the presidency.

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If no candidate wins a majority of electoral votes, the House of Representatives must choose among the three candidates winning the most electoral votes.

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If you wish to be the president, you first need to win the most delegates from around the country who support your nomination as the party's candidate.

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In a swing state, either candidate has a chance at winning the states' electoral votes on election day. A safe state, by contrast, is a state in which one candidate has a wide margin of support over the other candidate.

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In addition, candidates tailor their campaign efforts to the competitiveness of the seat for which they are running. Although the majority of congressional races are not competitive due to the high rate at which incumbents are reelected, in the rare case of a close race between an incumbent and a challenger (or in the case of no incumbent), candidates will focus more resources on strategies and tactics that will distinguish them from their opponents.

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In challenges to FECA, the Supreme Court upheld the limitations on hard money donations to candidates but struck down limits on the amount that individuals and organizations could spend on behalf of a candidate (in the form of advertising, for instance). In 2010, the Supreme Court extended this protection to corporations as well.

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In most states, the House or Senate candidate who receives the most votes wins the election. This is known as plurality voting.

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Incumbents - those who currently hold political office.

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Iowa still uses a caucus system, but most other states have moved toward a direct primary system in which the choice of presidential nominee is put directly to the voters. This is known as a primary election.

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It is important to note that parties are not required to allow rank-and-file members to be involved in the nomination process.

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It is important to note, however, that American political campaigns have not always been so candidate-centered.

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Just as voters are indirectly involved in the nomination of candidates, voters are also indirectly involved in the election of the president, who is formally elected by the Electoral College.

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Many states coordinate the timing of their primaries and caucuses to increase their collective influence. In the 2008 presidential election, for example, 21 states held their nominating elections on February 5. Given the large number of primaries and caucuses taking place on the same day, this event is known as "Super Tuesday."

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National conventions - party meetings held every four years to establish the party platforms and officially nominate presidential candidates to run in the general election.

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On election night, however, all that would change. As polls closed across the country, it became evident that the outcome would hinge on vote totals in the state of Florida. After a month of vote recounting and a contentious legal battle that reached all the way to the Supreme Court, Bush was awarded Florida's electors and, with them, the presidency. Gore, however, had secured 537,179 more popular votes nationwide than Bush did.

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On the Monday after the second Wednesday in December, electors meet at state capitals to formally cast votes for president and vice president. The 12th Amendment establishes that electors will cast one vote for president and one vote for vice president.

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Once a presidential candidate has been formally nominated by a party, he then faces the next challenge: the general election.

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Once the delegates have been selected through the nomination process, both parties hold their national conventions in late summer.

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One advantage is that it preserves the principle of federalism built into the Constitution by the Founders. The Constitution calls for the president and vice president to be selected by representatives of the people of the independent states.

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The nomination phase of presidential elections involves the selection of delegates from the Republican and Democratic parties in each state to attend the national nominating conventions of each party. The national conventions are traditionally held during the summer months preceding the general election.

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The number of electors from each state is determined by the size of the state's delegation in both houses of Congress.

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The original law—known as the Federal Election Campaign Act (FECA)—distinguished between hard money for candidates and soft money for campaigns. It targeted hard money by limiting individual contributions to $1,000 and PAC contributions to $5,000, but it placed no restrictions on soft money contributions.

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The party-centered campaigns of the 19th century have evolved into the candidate-centered campaigns of today.

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The second step for a congressional candidate is to win the general election.

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The shift from party-centered to candidate-centered elections is also a result of significant technological advancements that have permitted candidates to exert more control over their individual electoral fortunes.

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The total number of electors today is 538. Given that a candidate must secure an absolute majority to win presidential office, 270 electoral votes are necessary for victory.

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The use of the Electoral College also makes the election process easier from a technical perspective.

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There are advantages and disadvantages to using the Electoral College system to select the president.

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There are three basic strategies that campaigns tend to use in some combination.

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This biennial process is known as the general election, and by law it is held in November of every even-numbered year.

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This event set the precedent for partisan nominating conventions at which delegates from the states vote to select the presidential nominee. Today, the states use different methods for selecting their delegates.

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Though the system has changed over time to allow for more direct citizen involvement in the selection of national leaders, much of what the Founders intended has been preserved.

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Through most of the 2000 election season, the presidential contest between Vice President Al Gore and Texas Governor George W. Bush was considered relatively uneventful.

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Throughout a campaign cycle, a candidate may rely on all three of these strategies. For instance, during the nomination process a candidate would likely adopt an issue-oriented approach that would distinguish her position from her rival's, or a candidate-oriented strategy that would highlight her unique personal characteristics and record.

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Today, ballots typically provide a candidate's party affiliation, but this affiliation is often less prominently featured than the candidate's name and rarely represented symbolically. Why is this trend an important one? It reflects a larger shift in the role of political parties in the electoral process, as American elections have become increasingly candidate-centered in a variety of ways.

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Today, national conventions are largely symbolic proceedings in which delegates affirm state nominees and parties formally present their presidential and vice presidential candidates.

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When all members of the society enjoy the right to vote, and all members accept the procedures for deciding election outcomes, the result of an election is understood to be a legitimate reflection of the will of the people.

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Without being able to cast a secret ballot, many voters faced political intimidation.

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You then need to win a majority of electoral votes among the states.

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