1. Campaigns & Elections
Objective 2.1

2. Objectives What methods are used to choose candidates?
How are elections conducted in the U.S?
What role does money play in politics?

3. Introduction
What methods are used to choose candidates for public office?
Candidates are nominated for public office through:
Self-announcement
Caucus
Convention
Direct primary
Petition

4. The Nominating Process
What is a nomination?
The process of selecting the candidates who will seek public office. It is a key function of American political parties.
In our two-party system, the nominating process puts limits on the choices available to voters in the general election.
Checkpoint Answer: Nomination is the process of selecting the candidates that will seek public office. 4

5. Why might wealthy candidates favor self-announcement?
A person who wants to run for office can simply announce that fact.
Whenever a write-in candidate appears, self- announcement has been used.
NOTE TO TEACHERS: Presidential candidates who used the self-announcement process include George Wallace in 1968, Eugene McCarthy in 1976, John Anderson in 1980, and Ross Perot in 1992.
Cartoon Question Answer: Students should note that wealthy candidates can afford to pay for their own campaigns and may be best equipped to bypass the normal nomination process.
Why might wealthy candidates favor self-announcement?

6. The Caucus
A caucus is a group of people who meet to select candidates for election
In the early republic, key party members met in caucuses to nominate candidates.
Party members in State legislatures held caucuses to nominate candidates for State offices, while party caucuses in Congress nominated presidential candidates.
Caucuses were criticized as being too small, private, and out of touch with everyday party members.

7. The Convention Conventions replaced caucuses.
Party voters choose delegates who attend conventions, where they pick party candidates and elect delegates to attend higher level conventions.
Conventions were soon controlled by party bosses.
NOTE TO TEACHERS: The above image shows Al Franken at a DFL state convention.

8. The Direct Primary
By law, the direct primary is now the nominating method used by the major parties in most States.
Qualified voters cast private ballots for their preferred candidate. The person receiving the most votes is nominated.
The States regulate and conduct party primaries.
A closed primary is closed to all but declared members of a party. Usually this means being a registered party member.
An open primary is open to all qualified voters.

9. Open vs. Closed Primaries
help make candidates more responsive to their party
force voters to choose a party affiliation
keep the opposing party from “raiding” a primary and picking the weakest candidates.
Open primaries…
do not exclude independent voters.
In many cases, open primary voters can also keep their choice of party private.

10. Forms of Primaries in State Elections

11. Evaluating Primaries What are the benefits and drawbacks of primaries?
puts the nominating process into the hands of the everyday party members.
Drawbacks include:
primaries make campaigns more expensive
voter turnout in primaries is usually less than half what it is for general elections.
emphasizes name familiarity over talent
can cause divisions within a party.
Checkpoint Answer: The benefit is that it puts the nominating process in the hands of everyday party members, while the drawbacks include low voter turnout, added expense, emphasis on name recognition over skill, and possible source of party divisions. 11

12. Petition At the local level: Many States require…
candidates may be nominated by petitions
signed by a minimum number of qualified voters in the election district.
Many States require…
minor party and independent candidates to be nominated by petition.

13. Elections How are elections conducted in the United States?
Elections are conducted by qualified voters casting secret ballots under the supervision of precinct election boards.
Depending upon State and local laws, voters may cast ballots within precincts at polling places on election day, at polling places just before election day, or by mail-in absentee ballot in the weeks leading up to the election.

14. Administering Elections
The Help America Vote Act of requires States to:
replace lever-operated and punch-card voting machines
improve their administration of elections
computerize voter registration systems
allow provisional voting

15. Early Voting What is early voting?
involves casting ballots BEFORE election day.
States have greatly expanded early voting in recent years.
Voters can apply for absentee ballots in advance
mail them to their local election office before election day.
Two-thirds of the States also let voters cast ballots at polling places for a period of several days before election day.
Checkpoint Answer: Early voting involves casting ballots before election day, either by absentee ballot or by attending polling places opened for a period of several days before the formal election date. 15

16. What Happens to a Ballot?
Paper ballots
collected and taken to a counting facility.
Absentee ballots
mailed to the counting facility or brought to the polling place.
Electronic ballots
sent electronically or stored and sent manually.

17. The Coattail Effect
A strong candidate for an office at the top of a ballot can attract voters to other candidates on the party’s ticket.
A weak candidate, on the other hand, can cost a party votes.
Holding State and local elections on different days from federal elections might reduce this coattail effect.

18. Precincts and Polling Places
Precincts are small voting districts with a polling place in or near them.
Precinct election boards supervise the voting process, opening and closing the polls at times set by State law.
Precinct boards must also ensure that ballots and voting devices are available and that only qualified voters cast ballots. They often count votes as well.
Each party can have a poll watcher at a polling place to monitor the process.

19. Casting Ballots
Ballots can take many forms, from paper sheets to electronic records.
Voting was once public, but now every State requires the use of a secret ballot.
By 1900, most States used the Australian Ballot, which remains the basic form of ballot used today. This ballot type:
Is printed at public expense
Lists the names of all candidates
Is given out only at the polls
Is marked in secret 19

20. Electronic Vote Counting
Voting systems based on electronic data processing include optical scanners and direct response electronic voting machines.
Some fear that DRE’s could be attacked by computer hackers.
NOTE TO TEACHERS: The above image shows memory cards used to record votes from an electronic voting machine.

21. Online Voting
Online voting may be the wave of the future, having been used on a small scale in presidential primaries.
Pros:
Convenient
less expensive
likely to increase voter participation.
Cons:
technical problems
computer viruses
hackers
not all Americans can afford a home computer.

22. Money & Politics What role does money play in electoral politics?
The amount of money spent on political campaigns is huge and grows with each election cycle.
Some of the rising campaign expenses include items like advertising (with TV ads being most expensive), polls, mass mailings, campaign staff, and travel.
The ability to raise money is thus critical for federal office seekers.

23. Campaign Spending
In 2008, presidential candidates spent some $2.5 billion.
In September alone, Obama and McCain each spent an average of:
$25.2 million on TV and radio ads
$4.1 million on travel
$2 million on campaign worker salaries
$800,000 on polls

24. Campaign Spending, cont.
Some $1.5 billion was spent on House and Senate contests in 2008.
It now costs about $1 million to run for a House seat, and up to 20 times that to campaign for a Senate seat.
Chart Question Answer: Students will probably note the increased cost and use of television advertising. Some may also recognize that presidential campaigns now take place over a longer period of time than in the past.
What factors may account for the rise seen in the chart to the right?

25. Sources of Funding Where do campaign contributions come from?
private givers, such as small contributors,
wealthy individuals,
political action committees (PACs),
temporary fundraising groups,
candidates themselves.
Campaigns, particularly presidential campaigns, receive public funds from federal and state treasuries as well.
Checkpoint Answer: Most money comes from private givers such as small contributors, wealthy individuals, political action committees, temporary fundraising groups, and candidates, while some additional money comes from public funds in the form of government subsidies. 25

26. Sources of Funding
The Internet has become a major fundraising tool, particularly for outsider candidates.
Candidates also raise money through telethons and fundraising dinners.
Barack Obama raised some $230 million via the Internet in 2008, mostly in sums of less than $100.
People typically give money because they believe in a party or candidate, wish to influence public policy, or want improved access to government.

27. Regulating Finance
Congress regulates the use of money in federal elections.
It passed the most recent campaign finance law in 2002.
Federal laws require:
the disclosure of campaign finances
limit contributions and expenditures
provide federal funding for presidential elections.
The Federal Election Commission often struggles to enforce campaign finance laws due to a lack of staff and funds.
NOTE TO TEACHERS: The name of the 2002 law is the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002, which was upheld by the Supreme Court in McConnell v. FEC in 2003.

28. Disclosure Requirements
Each candidate has a single committee responsible for all campaign spending and recording all campaign contributions.
Contributions over $200 must be identified by date, purpose, and the name of the giver. Contributions of more than $5,000 must be reported to the FEC.
Cash gifts of more than $100 are prohibited, as are contributions and spending from foreign sources. 28

29. Limits on Contributions
No person can give over $2,300 to a federal candidate in a primary or general election.
No person can give more than $5,000 to a PAC or $28,500 to a national party in a single year.
No person can give more than $108,200 total in a two- year election cycle.
Before these limits were imposed in 1974, individuals often gave larger amounts.

30. PAC Contributions
More than 4,000 political action committees (PACs) are active today:
Most represent special interest groups such as business associations and labor unions. They can raise money only from members.
Other PACs are unconnected committees that can raise money from the public.
No PAC can give more than $5,000 to a candidate in a primary or general election. But a PAC can give to as many candidates as it chooses and give up to $15,000 a year to a political party.

31. Public Funding
The Presidential Election Campaign Fund, established in 1971, uses taxpayer money to help fund pre-convention campaigns, national party conventions, and presidential election campaigns.
The system is set up so that only candidates with national organizations can qualify for funding.
If a presidential candidate accepts public funding for the general election, his or her campaign cannot take funds from any other source and is limited in what it can spend.
NOTE TO TEACHERS: In 2008 the amount of the federal subsidy for the general election was $84.1 million per candidate.
A lack of taxpayer support and the rising cost of campaigns may doom the public funding program.
In 2008, Barack Obama became the first candidate to refuse federal funds for the general election, raising more than $300 million privately.

32. Hard and Soft Money Federal law puts limits on hard money:
contributions given directly to candidates.
In the 1980s, the major parties began raising millions in unregulated soft money:
funds given to parties or political organizations.
In 2000, some $500 million in soft money had been raised. This money could be spent on “issue ads” supporting or opposing certain policies.

33. Hard and Soft Money
In 2002, the McCain-Feingold Law banned soft-money contributions to political parties.
But independent political groups, often called “527s,” still can and do raise millions in soft money.
NOTE TO TEACHERS: This law is formally known as the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of The above image shows Senator Russ Feingold (D., Wisconsin), who has worked to regulate campaign contributions.