How Elections Work

Presidential Elections

The President of the United States is elected by the Electoral College and not directly by the population. Each state is assigned electoral votes based on the number of senators and representatives that state has in Congress. Each state has two Senators. The number of representatives is determined by the state’s population but is never less than 1. Thus small states with a small population are overly represented in the Electoral College. One candidate wins all of the electoral votes in all states except Maine and Nebraska. Their two electors are chosen by statewide popular vote and a single elector is chosen in each Congressional district.

When does the Electoral College meet?

The Electoral College meets on the first Monday after the second Wednesday in December. Their votes are then counted again in the presence of Joint Meeting of Congress sixth day of January to certify the returns. The candidate that wins over 50% of the electoral votes becomes President of the United States.

Who are the members of the Electoral College? The members of the Electoral College are individual who are active in their party. They are pledged to vote for one or the other candidates. By law they are not required to vote for their pledged candidate but in fact always do.

What if no one wins the Majority of electoral votes?

In the case that no candidate wins the majority of electoral votes, the election is decided by the House of Representatives and the House of Representatives votes by state. Thus every state in the House of Representative gets one vote.

Chart of the Number of Electoral Votes by State
State	Number of Electoral Votes
Alabama	9
Alaska	3
Arizona	10
Arkansas	6
California	55
Colorado	9
Connecticut	7
Delaware	3
District of Columbia	3
Florida	27
Georgia	15
Hawaii	4
Idaho	4
Illinois	21
Indiana	11
Iowa	7
Kansas	6
Kentucky	8
Louisiana	9
Maine	4
Maryland	10
Massachusetts	12
Michigan	17
Minnesota	10
Mississippi	7
Missouri	11
Montana	3
Nebraska	5
Nevada	5
New Hampshire	4
New Jersey	15
New Mexico	5
New York	31
North Carolina	15
North Dakota	3
Ohio	20
Oklahoma	7
Oregon	7
Pennsylvania	21
Rhode Island	4
South Carolina	8
South Dakota	3
Tennessee	11
Texas	34
Utah	5
Vermont	3
Virginia	13
Washington	11
West Virginia	5
Wisconsin	10
Wyoming	3
Total 50 States Plus The District of Columbia	538
Number of Votes Needed to Win	281

Political Affiliations

Today, approximately equal numbers of Americans identify with each of the major political parties, and more than a third consider themselves independents. Political identification has declined in recent years, with the number of people identifying with one or the other party decreasing. From the 1960s to today, there has been a marked drop in party affiliation. In the 1950s, it was a reasonable to assume that children would identify with the same political party as their parents; today, that is not necessarily so. Many of the events of the 1960s, such as the Vietnam War and desegregation, resulted in a realignment of party affiliation. Even more significantly, new voters entering the electorate since the 1960s have largely chosen to be unaffiliated with either of the major parties. In addition, over the last two decades, many active Republicans have moved to more conservative views, while active Democrats members have moved to more liberal views. This movement away from “center,” or politically moderate views, has further weakened party identification for those who already had weak party identification. The midterm elections of 2006 seem to have moved more people towards the political center, but it may have been mostly a reaction to the Iraq War. Prior to the midterm elections of 2010, the Tea Party, an ad hoc movement of political conservatives, were generally fed up with all of the politicians in Washington emerged as a populist political movement. The Tea Party has become a force to reckon with by both the Republican and Democratic parties. Today the United States is “Center Right” in its views who generally distrust all politicians of both of America’s political parties.

Campaigns

While presidential campaigns traditionally have begun after Labor Day, they “officially” kick off at the nominating conventions held over the summer. Once the conventions have ended, the candidates launch campaigns.  Today all begin well before the conventions, some two years or more prior to the conventions. The Presidential campaigns are simultaneously national in scope and local in focus. They run separate campaigns in different states, and must win 281 electoral votes in order to be elected President. When candidates win the majority of electoral votes in a state, they gain all the electoral votes of that state. Thus, states with many electoral votes; such as California, Texas and New York; are the sites of aggressive campaigning. Some states are considered likely victories for one or the other candidate, while the others are “up for grabs.” These “swing states” usually receive the greatest amount attention from the candidates. These considerations greatly influence candidates as they decide where to engage their efforts and where to limit their spending. Presidential campaigns often seem like chess games, with the players making strategic decisions to try to maximize their chances of winning the required number of votes.

Financing Campaigns

The cost of financing campaigns has steadily risen over the last few decades. In 1975-76, $100 million dollars was spent on congressional election campaigns. By 1995-96, that number had grown to $766.4 million. Direct spending in presidential campaigns has risen in the same period from a little over $100 million to $400 million, and this does not even include the amount spent by independent groups and state and national campaigns. Since it has not been affected by prior attempts at campaign finance reform, spending in state and national campaigns has grown even more significant. Under terms of the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971, individuals are limited to making contributions of $1,000 per candidate per election, $5,000 a year to a political action committee (PAC) and $20,000 a year to a political party. In total, an individual cannot donate more than $25,000 to an election campaign. In addition, the act provides for public funding of the presidential campaigns of the major parties. The effectiveness of the Campaign Act has been greatly reduced by two Supreme Court decisions. The first is Buckley v. Valeo (1976), in which the Court held that individuals could not be made to accept campaign limits. Spending money on a campaign was the equivalent to free speech. Candidates can only have their spending limited if they enter into agreements to limit spending by taking federal campaign funds. In 1996, in the case of Colorado Republican Federal Campaigning Committee v. Federal Election Commission, the Court held that state and local parties cannot be limited in the amount of money spent on behalf of candidate, as long as that spending is not coordinated with the candidate. This extends to PACs and other equivalent groups. The need for so much money in political campaigns has resulted in an unseemly pursuit of money. A candidate for the House of Representatives needs to raise nearly $2,000 every day. A Senator needs more than three times that amount. Thus, Congresspeople feel that they must offer access to their offices in return for donations. The practice was taken to its logical extreme in the 1996 presidential campaign, during which donors to the Democratic Committee were promised tea with the Clintons or, in some cases, an opportunity to sleep in the Lincoln bedroom in the White House. To most observers of the system, the need for significant campaign reform is clear. Unfortunately, it has been difficult to bring about significant campaign reform, because of the position of the Supreme Court, which has equated spending money with free speech; and the opposition of people who benefit from the current system.

Nominations

Candidates wishing to run for the presidency must enter primary elections held by each party in states throughout the United States. The primary season begins in January of the year in which a presidential election is held. Traditionally, the primary season has begun in Iowa, in which a state caucus selects delegates to the national convention. Following Iowa is the New Hampshire primary. The third primary election is in the state of South Carolina. Even though these are small states and have few votes, the momentum gained or lost by a victory or defeat in these early states is critical in obtaining money for the rest of the campaign. Following these states are often blocks of primaries that are held on certain dates, such as “Super Tuesday,” when many states hold their nominations. Candidates may choose not to participate in all the primaries, but they must constantly accumulate delegates for the convention and raise funds to keep their campaigns going. There are two basic types of primaries: open and closed. In open primaries, all registered voters may vote to nominate a candidate. Most primaries, however, are closed primaries, in which only registered members of the party can vote to nominate the party’s candidates. The two major parties, Democratic and Republican, nominate their presidential candidates at a national nominating convention. Until recently, the majority of the delegates to the national convention had been appointed by local party officials. Today, the overwhelming majority are elected through the primary system, thus making the system more democratic, while at the same time eliminating most of the drama and purpose of the convention. Since today’s primaries determine the makeup of the convention floor, the nominations of the presidential candidates are a foregone conclusion. Conventions have turned into “made-for-TV” specials to advertise the parties’ presidential choices. Nominees for Vice President are also officially selected at conventions, but the Presidential candidate is actually the person who chooses the running mate.

Party Conventions

A key part of the American political process has included party conventions held every four years to determine the major parties Presidential candidates. The first party to introduce nominating conventions was the Anti-Masons. Delegates from 13 states met in Baltimore Maryland on September 26, 1831 were they selected Attorney General William Wirt of Maryland to be there candidate. The Democrats followed in 1832 re-nominated President Jackson. Since that time many of the conventions have been places of great drama, where it has taken multiple votes to elect a parties Presidential candidate. In recent years with the current system of primaries in which most of the convention votes are decided the drama of the conventions has been lost as the outcomes have been predetermined. Instead the conventions have been used as a tool by the parties to market their candidates and unveil their party’s platform. In recent years the only true disagreements at the conventions have been negotiations over party platform.

Party Platforms

The party platform is supposed to present the aspiration and goals of the party if elected. The first platform presented was an address to the people that the 1835 democratic convention approved. At the conventions there is often disagreements between the “true believers” of the party who wish the platform to represent their views, while the more moderate members of the party and often those people who represent the soon to be nominated Presidential candidate wish to moderate the platform so it attracts the swing voters. If the party’s nominee has close control of the party itself he will work to insure that the fight over the platform is not too divisive and does not obscure the message of the candidate.

Remember ………….. Remain Staunch, Fearless, and Resolute.

Bob Harris Follow @2012RepealObama