the nominating process Flashcards
what are invisible primaries?
-where candidates announce their candidacy
-used for name recognition, money, organisation and media
-visits to the key states that are the first states to hold their primaries - Iowa and New Hanpshire
how do primaries work?
-they are elections run by state and local governments to select candidates for an upcoming election
describe caucuses and how they could be seen as undemocratic:
-political meeting of party members
-people attend these in churches, libraries etc
-supporters attempt to make a case for their candidate and attempt to convince undecided voters
-then votes are cast for a presidential candidate and delegates are selected to represent voters at the national nominating convention
-because Iowa is where the first caucus is held, they put more focus there e.g. in 2020 the top 10 democrat candidates spent an average of 2 months in Iowa
-the majority of republican candidates who led the polls ahead of Iowa went on to be president, yet Iowa is a small state so how is it fair that they have that much influence!
what’s a closed primary?
only registered democrats can vote in the democrat primary and vice versa for republicans
what’s an open primary?
any registered voter can vote in the primary of either party
what’s super tuesday?
a tuesday when a number of states coincide their presidential primaries in order to gain influence for their region in the selection of major party presidential candidates
what’s ‘front loading’?
where some states schedule their primaries/ caucuses earlier, to increase the importance of their state
what are the advantages of the primary/caucus system?
-boosts political participation as ordinary voters can choose their party’s candidate
-allows political outsiders to run for office e.g. Trump
-they ‘road test’ candidates’ qualities for the office e.g. media presence
-caucuses provide an opportunity for ordinary voters to discuss strengths and weaknesses
what are the disadvantages of the primary/caucus system?
-too much importance is placed on Iowa and New Hampshire, which are demographically unrepresentative of the rest of the US
-it increases the focus on candidates as
opposed to parties or policies, with many debates being heated and personal
-they have low turnout and in 2016 a poll revealed that only 35% of voters said primaries are a good way of selecting the best nominees
-the general public is bombarded by political ads and slogans (e.g. Trump’s MAGA), meaning they are less suited to understand a candidate’s true abilities
-primaries can cause voter fatigue
describe national party nominating conventions:
-lasts 3-4 days
-often held in swing states
-they are always televised with lots of viewers, and the candidate will give an acceptance speech
-promotes party unity and generates an energy to enthuse the party faithful
what are the functions of national party nominating conventions?
- decide on party platform and promote it - e.g. at DNC in 2020 Biden promoted a party platform based on a nationwide strategy to combat covid-19
- choose presidential candidate - although since the mcgovern-fraser reforms in 1972 the function has been to ‘crown’ them as the nominee is already known before the convention
- reunite the party - e.g. in 2008 it was vital that the democrats showed a united front after the obama hillary clinton rivalry, so at the convention both clintons endorsed obama
what is the electoral college?
a body of people representing the states of the US, who formally cast votes for the election of the president and vice president
why is there an electoral college when there’s a total national vote?
it’s there to protect the smaller states, because if it was just on popular vote then candidates would only visit the more populated states
how do you calculate how many electoral college votes a state gets?
number of representatives + number of senators (the fact it includes the senators protects the smaller states because all states have 2 senators regardless of population
what happens when no candidate has an absolute majority in the electoral college?
-the house of representatives elects the president
-the senate elects the vice president
arguments to justify the electoral college?
- whoever gets selected usually wins the presidency e.g. in 2020 the clear winner of the popular vote, joe biden, also won the electoral college
- it reflects the federal nature of the USA, by forcing candidates to campaign in all states
- faithless electors have never affected the final outcome and are only a protest vote. 2008, 2012 and 2020 elections had no faithless electors. also can bring in laws to require electors to vote for their initial choice of candidate.
- if their was an nation wide popular vote, candidates would only focus on larger states
arguments against the electoral college?
- there have been occasions where the winner of the popular vote didn’t win the electoral college and so failed to become president, e.g. Hillary Clinton 2016
- it exaggerates the margins of victory e.g. in 2024 trump won 58% of electoral college votes but only 49.9% of popular vote
- smaller states are overrepresented e.g. california gets one vote per 712,000 whereas wyoming gets one vote per 195,000
- it was drawn up by founding fathers - synoptic link to constitution - in a very different political era, back when america was smaller and less diverse
- encourages candidates to focus their campaign on the small number of swing states e.g. florida, ohio
possible reforms to the electoral college: MS
-Maine System
-awarding one vote to a candidate for each congressional district that they win, and two votes to the candidate who is the state wide winner
-basically proportional representation
possible reforms to the electoral college: PR
-PR system
-allocation of electoral college votes in each state in proportion to the popular vote
-would require other reforms to be made e.g. a threshold for winning electoral college votes within a state
-would move the US away from a 2 party system
possible reforms to the electoral college: AP
-automatic plan
-would mean getting rid of the electors, making the allocation of electoral college votes purely automatic
-all it would do is get rid of the risk of faithless electors, but they’re rare anyway
possible reforms to the electoral college: DAP
-direct action plan
-a directly elected president!
-would require a constitutional amendment
-but success would be unlikely as 2/3rds of states are small so they wouldn’t support it
