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Presidential Elections By Sam Knowlton and Liam O'Brien (Electoral…
Presidential Elections By Sam Knowlton and Liam O'Brien
Money in Politics
Money in Politics Court Cases
Buckley v. Valeo
Bucley v. Valeo made it so that an individual could spend unlimited sums of money to a candidate.
Since this ruling in the Court many PACS formed to promote candidates in elections.
Today over 5,800 organizations raise and spend money to influence elections.
Number of PACS in the past doubled due to Court ruling between 1977 and 1980.
Citizens United v. FEC
Constitutional Question: Is money a form of Speech? Holding from FEC v. Citizens was that political spending is protected speech under the First Amendment, and the government may not keep corporations or unions from spending money to support or denounce individual candidates in elections.
Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971 limited the amount that outside groups could spend on campaign advertisements, and under the First Amendment corporate funding of independent political broadcasts in the candidate was restricted. But the ruling was that this violated the First Amendment and it was overturned and actually made okay put out political Broadcast.
Citizens United v. FEC made Superpacs explode with the ability to spend unlimited money
Superpacs in Politics
Rules in Super Pacs
Unlimited sums of money on advertising
Buckely v, Valeo made it so advertising may not include eight words that make it so that the advertisement makes it clear to vote or not vote for a certain candidate. Example:" Vote for".
Because contacting directly with the candidate or nominee is illegal, the nominee will put videos of random scenarios of themselves, (signing papers, shaking hands, kissing babies, etc.) so the Super PAC's can have pictures and clips of the nominee they are supporting. This first originated from the candidate Mitch McConnell and now is a online joke called
#McConnelling
Cannot coordinate with Candidate
PAC (Political Action Committee)
a type of organization that pools campaign contributions from members and donates those funds to campaign for or against candidates, ballot initiatives, or legislation.
Securing Nomination
Presidential Qualifications
Constitutional Requirements
The requirements to be a United States President are held in Article 1, Section 2, Clause 4 of the Constitution.
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PRESIDENTIAL QUALIFICATIONS
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Testing the Waters
Book Tour
Get Mentioned by media is the last step before the candidate announces the running for president. A way to get the word out before the fact of officially announcing presidency.
Announce Candidacy
Build a campaign
Raise a lot of Money
For the presidency, over $ 1 billion is needed to be raised to be a national competitor and party nomination
Campaign Strategy is the basis of winning the Presidency. A good strategy, planning out great speech, getting to the people, and spreading the word and gaining popularity is the name of the game when it comes to running for office. This is a campaign strategy
Incumbent
is the person who is holding the position in office.
Challenger
is the one challenging the incumbent for spot or wants the spot. Not the cases sometimes when the incumbent has done maximum time in office.
Front loading
: decision to move a primary date to the beginning of the presidential nomination season. This is to try to make there partisan have more of an influence in the election.
Party Nomination Selected
Primaries/Caucus
Iowa being first state
A pro of Iowa being the first Primary is the fact that smaller more unknown candidates compete with the big dogs when it comes to popularity and money in other states. It forces the candidates to go to the roots of politics and to kiss babies and shake hands and gain popularity that way.
A con is this state does not at all look like the rest of America when it comes to age, origin, ethnicity. The culture looks different. So it makes it an interesting choice for the first state.
If as the candidate for nominee, if you win Iowa, than you will get
"the big MO"
which is simply just lots of momentum, helping your candidacy out for the future primaries/caucuses and putting you in a good place to win the nomination of your party
After the 1st 4 main primaries/caucuses, the Tuesday after this is called
Super Tuesday
because 22 states hold their primaries/caucuses. If one candidate wins majority of these states, then most likely they will win the nomination for their party.
Delegates
are the important part of deciding the presidential nominee in the primaries stage because the delegates are the people voting for the candidate. When the president wins a state in the primaries it gets a certain amount of delegates, pledged to a certain partisan political party candidate. This delegates will then go on to the national party convention and choose the candidate they want to run for office.
The
super-delegates
are unpledged delegates that can vote either way and is not pledged to a certain candidate going into the convention.
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Caucuses/Primaries
Viability Threshold
Caucus: If a member running nomination of its party does not receive 15% of the vote then they are removed from the caucus, and the supporters are asked to go support an alternate candidate.
Iowa (Caucus)
New Hampshire (Primary)
Nevada (Caucus)
Open Primary
Any registered voter can vote in any party’s primary, as can independent voters not registered with a party
South Carolina (Primary)
Closed Primary
Voting in a party’s primary is limited to the members of the party
Caucus
Caucus pros cons
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Definition
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Primary Pro/Con
Pro is that it is more open to a variety of people in the community coming out to vote and can support the smaller candidates.
A con is that the voting that goes in the Primary's with mail-in ballots and dropping your vote into a box is that the less educated voters will be more affected by media and news.
Book tours are one of the most obvious signs that a candidate is testing the waters to run for office.
Testing the waters is a situation were the candidate travels around for a non-political reason to test the waters to see if they would be a popular presidential candidate.
General Elections
The concept of the General Election the people decide who will hold office from the people who won the nomination in the primary stage of the election.
Types of elections
Instant Runoff Election
In a instant runoff election, a computerized voting machine eliminates the last-place vote-getters. This process will repeat until a winner is decided.
Runoff Election
If no candidate gets 50% of the vote than several of the top-vote-getters get another election to decide one winner of the election
Held on the First Tuesday after the first Monday in November
General Elections for Congress and most state legislature feature a winner take all system using popular vote as well. The Candidate that receives the most votes get the position.
General Elections in Congress are different from the presidential Elections because of the fact of the added complications of the electoral college added into presidential elections.
Direct popular vote
is a system of choosing political officeholders in which the voters directly cast ballots for the person, persons, or political party that they desire to see elected, not the elector.
Electoral College
Basic Facts
270 electoral votes to win presidency
Winner Take All Rule
The candidate that wins the state gets all the electoral votes
2 Exceptions
Maine and Nebraska base their electoral votes by their congressional districts.
538 total electoral votes
Electoral votes = number of representatives (for the specific state) + senators (2)
Pros & Cons
Pros
Was designed to promote good government and legislation that forwards the common good of a large and diverse nation
Makes sure all states count in the election
Can exaggerate winner to make it more clear
It keeps the 2-party system together
Cons
Can make some states have “more power” than others
California: pop: 39,000,000, 55 electoral votes
Wyoming has more electoral votes for their population (ratio wise)
Wyoming: pop: 500,000, 3 electoral votes
Can mis-represent the ratios
Reagan won 50.7% of popular vote, but won 91%of electoral college vote
Less accurate to what voters want
Pop vote = close
Electoral vote = big difference
Violates political equality
Candidates can win presidency without winning the popular vote
If someone does not get majority (over 270 votes) then the representatives get to vote for who gets presidency (can be skewed)
Rube Goldberg Similarity
Takes all these extra steps just to decide something that could have been gotten a more simple way (president)
How does it work?
You (the voter) votes for the elector
The elector votes for the candidate they represent if they win the state
If that elector wins they give all electoral votes to the candidate (Winner takes all)
First candidate to 270 votes wins presidency
What happens in a tie?
It goes to the house of representatives,then each state gets 1 vote to decide presidency
If it’s a tie here, then they vote again until there is a majority
Lots of bribery will happen
Wyoming (1 rep) = 1 vote
California (53 reps) = 1 vote
Electors
Faithless elector
Someone who does not put their electoral votes into the person the people voted for in their state (give votes to different candidate than who was voted for by the people)
Who can’t be an elector?
NO senator, representative, or person holding an office of trust or profit under the United states
Article II, Section 1, Clause 2
Definition
The person you vote for to give the electoral votes to the specific candidate