ElectionsGPS: SSCG8 The student will demonstrate knowledge of local, state, and national elections. b. Describe the nomination and election process. c. Examine campaign funding and spending. e. Identify how amendments extend the right to vote.

Essential Questions: 1.Today, major parties in most states nominate candidates at all levels of the government through what process?2.What is soft money?3.What is an open primary?4.Current officeholders are known as _________________________?

Agenda: EQsPolitical Parties videos and worksheetHomework: Complete any unfinished work for Friday

Election Process

• There are two major steps in the U.S. election process:

• 1.) Nomination – the field of candidates narrows

• 2.) General election – regularly scheduled election where voters choose the officeholder

Ways to Nominate• 1.) Self-announcement – Person who runs for office

announces his or her intention to do so– “I’m going to run for the Senate. Vote for me because I will cut

taxes and create thousands of new jobs. Also, I love dogs, babies, family values, hunting, conserving the environment, and basically everything you as the voter finds acceptable and attractive. So please, write me in on the ballot.”

- Candidate A

Ways to Nominate

• 2.) The Caucus – Originally a private meeting where all of the “bigshots” got together to decide on who the candidate would be; fell out of favor in 1820

Ways to Nominate

• 3.) The Convention – More democratic than the caucus, convention delegates selected to represent the people’s wishes; but party leaders soon found ways to manipulate this system; died out early 1900’s

Ways to Nominate• 4.) The Direct Primary – voters elect the candidate they

want to represent a certain political party (two-party system emphasized)

• Replaced the convention system• Most states have laws that require the major parties to use

primary elections to choose their members of Congress, governors, other state offices, and local office holders as well

States with Primary Systems• Alabama

Arizona Arkansas California Colorado Connecticut Florida Georgia Idaho Illinois Indiana Kansas Kentucky

• Louisiana Maine Maryland Massachusetts Missouri Mississippi

Montana Nebraska New Hampshire New Jersey New Mexico New York North Carolina Ohio Oklahoma Oregon Pennsylvania Rhode Island South Carolina South Dakota Tennessee Texas Utah Vermont West Virginia Wisconsin

Primaries• These states hold only Republican primaries:

Michigan, Virginia, Washington

• Both parties in Alaska, Delaware, Hawaii, Iowa, Minnesota, Nevada, North Dakota and Wyoming, as well as Democrats in Michigan, Virginia and Washington use alternative methods, such as caucuses, to select delegates to the national party conventions.

Types of Primaries

• Private & Public Sources1. Small contributors2. Wealthy individuals & families3. Candidates4. Political Action Committees

(PACs)• Political arms of special-interest &

other organizations with a stake in electoral politics

5. Temporary organizations6. Fund-raisers of various sorts7. Public funds

• Why people give– Belief in party or candidate– Want something in return such as

appointments to public office, bragging rights or hubris, certain laws to be passed, changed, or repealed, etc…

What are the sources of funding for campaign spending?

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Campaigns

• 1974 Federal Election Campaign Act– Public financing of presidential elections– Limits on spending if accept public finance– Created Federal Election Commission– Required candidates and donors to report

donations to the FEC, with caps now on donations

– Required candidates and donors to establish Political Action Committees (PACs) to handle money end of the campaigns

– Limited amount of personal wealth candidates could spend

Campaigns

• Buckley vs. Valeo (1976)– restrictions on personal spending violate the First

Amendment– caps on contributions, however, do not– federal finance of campaign do not, as long as it is voluntary

(that is, candidates can opt to accept the money -- and the limits -- or not)

– Most significantly, it also stipulated that several of the limits that the 1974 amendments placed on spending only apply to candidates who accept campaign money from the government, not those who raise money independently.

Campaigns

• Loopholes within the FECA– No limits on donations to political parties (“soft money”)– No limits on party spending for voter registration drives

(“soft money”)– No limits on number of political action committees

• Hard money – money that is raised & spent to elect candidates for Congress & the White House.

• Soft money – funds given to party organizations for such “party-building activities” as candidate recruitment, voter registration & get-out-the-vote drives, & similar efforts.

• Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002 (BCRA) or McCain/Feingold– Purpose is to limit the use of

soft money in political campaigns.

– Ban soft money contributions to political parties

What is hard money & soft money?

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Campaigns

• 2002 Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act (BCRA)– Closed soft money loophole– Raised the limits on PAC contributions and other donations– Bans “group sponsored” ads 30 days prior to a primary and

60 days prior to general election

Campaigns

• Loopholes– PACs can raise unlimited amounts of money– 527 Organizations -- nonprofit issue advocacy groups

Campaigning

• After winning the nomination, candidates spend more of their time campaigning in pivotal states with large electoral vote potentials.

• Nixon's presidential campaigns provide a case study on the importance of targeting states for campaigning.– In 1960 he vowed to campaign in all 50 states, did so, and

lost.– In 1968 he only campaigned in ten populous "battleground"

states, southern states that could be taken from George Wallace, and the border states. This time, he won.

The Impact of Media

• Media coverage (television) has influenced the course of campaigning.– It puts candidates in danger of assassination (JFK, Bobby

Kennedy, Ford, and George Wallace).– Media blitzes end national campaigns with saturation

campaign ads.– Campaigns help keep the voters excited and party

volunteers involved.– In most political commercials, objectivity is not the point.

They are designed to sell a product-the candidate-and get people to buy that product in the voting booth.

The Impact of Media

• Candidates may adopt various venues since TV is so essential to modern campaigns.– Televised debates have been used since 1960.– Carefully staged question-and-answer sessions were

designed to display personality and grasp of issues.– Candidate regional travels were tailored to reach statewide

and local TV evening news viewers.– In 2000 and 2004, major candidates had Internet Web sites

to raise money and recruit volunteers.– Social media including, Facebook and Twitter, have become

an important place for candidates to connect with voters.

“The 2008 campaign was the costliest in history, with a record-shattering $5.3 billion in spending by candidates, political parties and interest groups on the congressional and presidential races.

That sum marks a 27 percent increase over the $4.2 billion spent on the 2004 campaign, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, which compiled the figures.

The amount spent on the presidential race alone was $2.4 billion when all candidates and related expenses are included, the center found.

The party presidential nominees – Democrat Barack Obama and Republican John McCain – together spent more than $1 billion, also an unprecedented figure.”

Jeanne Cummings

2008 campaign costliest in U.S. history

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1108/15283.html

The Polls

• Public opinion polls are used in political campaigns by news media and candidates.

• Politicians use confidential polls to see if they ought to run.

• Polls can be used to test issues that are important to voters and to determine their feelings on them.

• Polls can be used in the campaign to test voter response to issues the candidate tackles.

The Polls

• If elected, officials may poll to measure voter reaction to office performance.

• Reagan pollster Dick Wirthlin employed the first "tracking polls" in 1980 to gauge shifts in opinion among voters and to decide how to act based on the information.

• Democrat Michael Dukakis, who continually trailed Bush in the polls, complained of a bandwagon effect, saying that it had reached the point where polls were driving the process.

The Polls

• In 1992 Bush had the same lament, telling people not to pay attention to "these nutty pollsters."

• There is a close relationship among television, campaigns, and polls. They are taken for granted today.

Congressional Job Approval

As the image to the left

demonstrates, Americans do

not usually have a high

level of confidence in or approval for the job being done

by the U.S. Congress.

Running for Re-electionWhen a member of Congress chooses to run for re-

election, they win an overwhelming percent of the time.

Since WWII approximatley 92% of all House of Rep. incumbents, that run for re-election, win re-

election. Incumbent members of the Senate have won 78% of the time.

Can we explain how/why this happens, especially in light of the information presented on the

previous slide dealing with

Congressional Job Approval.

Congressional Job Approval Revisited.

As was demonstrated on a previous slide, the

American people put very little confidence in the job that Congress as a whole is doing. But, when we ask

Americans how their individual member of

Congress is doing we find that most have a much

higher regard for the job THEIR MEMBER is doing.

WHY DO YOU THINK THAT IS SO?

Voting

• Amendments: 15, 17, 19, 23, *24, 26– #15: Right to Vote: Insures black males the right to vote – #17: Direct Election of Senators: Senators are to be elected

by the people – # 19: Women’s Suffrage: Women are granted the right to

vote – #23: Voting in D.C: Grants Washington D.C. 3 electors to the

electoral college – #24: Abolition of Poll Taxes: *Also in taxing/regulation

• Poll taxes are illegal in federal elections

– #26: Voting Age: The age of eligibility for voting is lowered to 18 

• Nearly all elections in the United States are held to choose the more than 500,000 persons who hold elective office in more than 87,000 units of government at the State & local levels.

• Most election law in the United States is State – not federal – law.

What extent are the States involved in regulating the electoral process?

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• Congress can fix “the times, places, & manner of holding elections” of members of Congress.

• Congress can also set the time for choosing presidential electors, set the date for casting electoral votes, & regulate the presidential election process.– Date for congressional elections is

the first Tuesday following the first Monday in November of every even numbered year & the same date every fourth year for presidential elections.

– Secret ballots & voting machines– Protected the right to vote as

previously stated– Regulated the financing of

campaigns for federal office.

What extent is the Federal Government involved in the regulation of elections?

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• The “Tuesday-after-the-first-Monday” formula prevents election day from falling on– Sundays (to maintain

separation of church & state)

– The first day of the month, which is often payday & therefore peculiarly subject to campaign pressures.

Why is election day the Tuesday after the first Monday in November?

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• A precinct is a voting district.– Precincts are the smallest

geographic units used to carry out elections.

– A precinct election board supervises the voting process in each precinct.

• A polling place is where the voters who live in a precinct go to vote. – It is located in or near each

precinct. Polling places are supposed to be located conveniently for voters.

What is the role of voting precincts & polling places in the election process?

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