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Politics Paper 3 > 5.1.1 Presidential elections and their significance > Flashcards

5.1.1 Presidential elections and their significance Flashcards

1
Q

3

Describe the constiutional requirements to be President

A
  • 35 years old
  • Natural born US citizen
  • Resident in US for 14 years
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2
Q

3

Describe the constitutional requirements of the Presidential election

A
  • Fixed terms
  • Indirect election - states vote where their ECVs should go
  • Constitution left Congress and states to decide how elections work in practice
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3
Q

2

Describe the fixed terms of Presidents

A
  • 2 x 4 year terms
  • Up to 2 years at end of term (if have been VP) + 2 x 4 years terms - 10 years total
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4
Q

6

Outline the presidential election cycle

A
  1. Invisible Primary
  2. Party primaries and caucuses
  3. National Party Convention
  4. Election Day
  5. Electoral College ballots cast
  6. Inauguration
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5
Q

5

Describe the invisible primary

A
  • Period prior to formal start of intraparty primary elections
  • Potential candidates compete to attract attention, funding and endorsements for their campaign
  • Aim to gain name recognition to become viable candidate
  • Candidacy announcement attracts serious media attention e.g. Trump - 2015
  • Televised debates
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6
Q

2

Give a stat/examples that describes the withdrawn candidacies in the invisible candidacy

A
  • Democrat Primary 2020 - 18/29 candidates dropped out prior to formal start of primary
  • Republican Primary 2024 - Mike Pence
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7
Q

3

Describe donations in the invisible primary system

A
  • Attracting funding essential for candidate to survive long and expensive campaign
  • ‘free’ media attention - estimates suggest Trump benefitted $2bn worth in 2016 due to controversial comments
  • May partially self-finance e.g. Michael Bloomburg (outspent Biden campaign, though made little ground)
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8
Q

2

How does the primary and caucus system work?

A
  • Organised by individual parties within each state
  • Public effectively vote to determine who their state delegates will vote for at National Party Convention
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9
Q

3

Describe primaries

A
  • Intraparty ballot to nominate party candidate
  • Secret ballot
  • Conducted on state-wide basis
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10
Q

4

Describe caucuses

A
  • Intraparty town hall to nominate party candidate
  • Often public voting
  • Conducted in small local areas
  • Less commonly used
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11
Q

3

List the 3 types of primary/caucus

A
  • Open
  • Closed
  • Semi-closed
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12
Q

3

Describe open primaries/caucuses

A
  • All voters in state can participate, regardless of whether they are a registered party member
  • Voters can only participate in one primary
  • e.g. Democrat voter/party member can choose to vote in Republican primary e.g. Nikki Haley 2024
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13
Q

1

Describe closed primaries/caucuses

A
  • Only registered party members can participate
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14
Q

2

Describe semi-closed primaries/caucuses

A
  • Regsitered party members only permitted to participate in their own party primary/caucus
  • Unregistered voter can choose which party’s to participate in
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15
Q

3

Describe the different ways in which delegates are allocated

A
  • Proportional - all Dem primaries/caucuses, some Republican
  • Winner-takes-all - some Republican
  • Proportional unless threshold reach - threshold often set at 50%, applies in some Republican
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16
Q

3

Describe frontloading

A
  • movement of primaries to earlier point in calendar to give more significance to primary or caucus within state
  • thereby gives more influence to state party members/voters
  • NH and Iowa traditionally first
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17
Q

1

How many super tuesday contests were there in 2024 primaries?

A

15 states (+ one territory)

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18
Q

2 - (2) (3)

Describe the formal roles of party conventions

A
  • Select presidential candidate
    • simple majority needed
    • delegates bound by party rules on who they have to vote fo
  • Adopt party platform (manifesto)
    • ‘policy committee’ agree platform in cojunction with presumptive nominee prior to convention
    • theoretically allows amendments
    • mostly serves to rubber stamp
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19
Q

2 - (2) (2)

Describe the informal roles of party conventions

A
  • Selling the candidate
    • multi-day event with extensive TV coverage
    • can allow rising stars to speak e.g. Obama 2004
  • Party unity
    • invisible primary reveals flaws of candidates and thereby exposes internal party divisions
    • runner-up may speak to promote presumptive nominee e.g. Clinton 2008
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20
Q

3

Describe Joe Biden’s 2020 primary campaign

A
  • Iowa - 4th
  • New Hampshire - 5th
  • Super Tuesday - topped 10/14 states
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21
Q

1

Describe the declining importance of National Party Conventions

A
  • greater emphasis placed on primaries/caucuses reduced convention to symbolic one
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22
Q

1

Give examples of the symbolic stature of National Party Conventions

A
  • 2016 RNC - took convention jut 6 minutes to agree party platform despite concerns from LGBT members via a voice vote
23
Q

3

What occurs in between the NPC and Election Day?

A
  • Extensive fundraising
  • Campaign events
  • Televised presidential debates
24
Q

3

Describe ‘Bellwether’ states

A
  • Those who have historically tended to vote for successful candidate
  • 2020 - 96% of campaigning by Trump/Biden took place in 12 states
  • Swing states - specific to election
25
Q

1

What happened in the 2016 Clinton v Trump debates

A
  • snap polls showed Clinton won every debate - but lsot election
26
Q

2

How are ‘electors’ selected

A
  • Selected by parties - decide who are electors in each state
  • Often faithful party activists - used as reward for patronage purposes
27
Q

3

How many ECVs does each state have?

A
  • Number of congressional districts + number of senators
  • DC gets 3 ECVs
  • Guarantees minimum 3 ECVs per state - leads to disproportion
28
Q

3

Describe ‘faithless electors’

A
  • Electors who do not vote as their state did
  • 33 states have states preventing faithless electors
  • 10 faithless electors in 2016 (3 had votes invalidated due to state laws)
29
Q

2

Describe the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact (NPVIC)

A
  • member states pledge all ECVs to winner of national popular vote, regardless of own state outcome
  • members: 17 states + DC
30
Q

3

Describe limits to the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact (NPVIC)

A
  • 2020 - Joe Biden won anyways in all participant states (+DC)
  • Would only come into force when it would guarantee that popular vote candidate wins
  • would raise legal constitutional issues if enacted
31
Q

2

How do Nebraska and Maine vote?

A
  • Allocate 2 ECVs to state popular vote winner
  • 1 ECV to winner in each congressional district
32
Q

3

Describe the arguments that the electoral college should be changed

A
  • Representation
  • Democracy
  • Participation
33
Q

4

Describe the argument that the electoral college should be changed - representation

A
  • Smaller states over represneted as each state/district guaranteed 3 ECVs
  • bellwether states recieve excessive focus
  • Less focus on majority of states where result is more predictable effectively ignored - Obama 2012
  • Large metropolitan cities can dominate state votes - New York
34
Q

1

Give an example of a state ECV disproportionality

A

CA ECV represents 3 times the population of a Wyoming ECV

35
Q

1

Give an example that shows how unwinnable states are ignored in Presidential elections

A

Obama did not visit Utah, SD, Idaho in 2012

36
Q

5

Describe the argument that the electoral college should not be changed - representation

A
  • Ensured small states’ role, culture and traditions are considered
  • as US population heavily concentrated in few big states
  • upholds RD and federalism
  • allows different electoral procedures in different states
  • 2012 - Obama won 51% popular vote + 332 ECVs, representing strong plurality
37
Q

5

Describe the argument that the electoral college should be changed - democracy

A
  • 2 of last 6 presidential elections have seen popular vote winner lose electoral college
  • ECVs not allocated proportionally
  • Effectively excludes 3rd party candidates as votes are thinly spread across nation (e.g. Ross Perot 1992 and 1996)
  • Biden won CA by over 5m votes in 2020 - yet not reflected in ECV count
  • faithless electors undermine democratic principles and threaten legitimacy
38
Q

5

Describe the argument that the electoral college should not be changed - democracy

A
  • FPTP creates two-party system that produces clear winner
  • Prevents Congress selecting President/VP
  • Ensured clear mandate
  • No consensus on what should replace elec college: PR of ECVs vs popular vote
  • Faithless electors insignificant
39
Q

3

Describe the argument that the electoral college should be changed - participation

A
  • States with more ECVs have higher turnouts (e.g. Hawaii has less)
  • Hawaii also had faithless elector in 2016 - link between abuse of electoral college and voter apathy
  • Unwilling to split ticket by voting for 3rd party candidate - ‘no-labels party’
40
Q

2

Give an example that shows the link between the state ECV size and turnout in the 2020 election

A
  • Alaska (3 ECVs) - 60%
  • CA (55 ECVs) - 80%
41
Q

3

Describe the argument that the electoral college should not be changed - participation

A
  • Will enjoy high turnouts regardless of electoral college reform
  • Turnout rose by 6% in 2020 despite supposed disillusion following popular vote/elec college disparity in 2016
  • Marginal states see very high turnouts
42
Q

2

Give an example of a battleground state with a very high turnout

A
  • Colorado, a secondary battleground state
  • saw 73% turnout in 2020
43
Q

7

Describe the factors of the signficance of the incumbency on a president seeking a 2nd term

A
  • Name recognition - greater than competitor
  • Fundraising advantages
  • Lack of primary challenger - can focus on national campaign
  • Policy successes in government
  • Can introduce populist policies prior to election to appease voters
  • Media attention for 4 years
  • Vote inertia - voters often risk-averse and unlikely to vote for change
44
Q

5

Describe limits to the signficance of the incumbency on a president seeking a 2nd term

A
  • Incumbents can be judges for failures e.g. Trump - pandemic handling
  • 3rd party factor - Perot 1992
  • May face primary challenge e.g. Dean Phillips
  • Economic/FP crisis
  • Opponent may command significant name recognition - Trump 2024
45
Q

5

Describe how the presidential election creates a two-party system

A
  • Winner-takes-all
  • Federal nature
  • Broad ideologies
  • Expense of campaigns
  • Electoral rules
46
Q

2

Give an example of how FPTP disadvantages 3rd parties in the 2016 election

A
  • 3rd party vote tripled to 7m
  • Yet came nowhere close to winning a state
47
Q

3

How does federalism create a 2 party system?

A
  • state runs own elections
  • no state allocates ECVs by PR
  • 48 states allocate ECVs on winner-takes-all basis
48
Q

3

How do ideological factors create a 2 party system?

A
  • Main 2 parties comprise broad ideologies
  • Difficult for third party/independents to carve out distinctive policy area
  • ‘co-optation’ - main parties assume policies of 3rd party
49
Q

2

How does financial considerations create a 2 party system?

A
  • Smaller parties lack funding for centrally-organised, extensive campaign
  • lack membership for mobilisation
50
Q

2

Candidates need to poll an average of (…) in national polls to qualify for debates

A

15%
Therefore institutionally discludes third parties/independent candidates

51
Q

2

Describe the 2 methods of running-mate selection

A
  • Balanced ticket - select running mate that opposes their characteristics (age, gender, ethnicity and wing of party)
  • Reinforcing ticket - Al Gore 1992 - moderate, young (Arkansas Govenor and Tenessee senator)
52
Q

1

Biden finished 5th in (…) in the 2020 Democrat primaries, the 2nd contest, yet went on to win the election

A

New Hampshire

53
Q

2

Describe a candidate that ran for President to boost their public profile

A
  • Pete Buttigieg - Mayor of South Bend, Indiana
  • Now Transport Secretary
54
Q

1

Give an example of co-optation

A
  • Trump embraced Libertarian ideals (e.g. tax cuts) and sought to win party nomination in 2024

Politics Paper 3 (34 decks)

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