American Politics
Lecture 3: The election system
I-Election day
What happens on Election Day? The constitution doesn’t say much about this. 2 amendments:
-Voters cannot be discriminated because of their race
-Voters must be 18 years old.
-Otherwise, it is the Sate that sets the gestion
5.3 million Americans went to prison or other reasons and therefore don’t have the right to vote.
Registration
First step to vote: registration and all States (except for North Dakota where you can vote without registration).
You can vote by mail, and use car registration to testify = idea is to facilitate voting process.
The registration is a simple peace of paper to fill (Need ID and Social security number and that’s it).
NB. You need to show your party preference just in order to vote in the primary election. Otherwise, if you choose not to fill this part, you cannot vote for primary election.
Elections
November 4th 2008 elections to come
You don’t vote for a candidate but for a list of people from the Electoral College.
Exceptions in Nebraska and Main
Problem of faithless electors
Members of Electoral College who do not vote for their parties designated candidates.
156 case of faithless electors. 21 States do not require their members of Electoral College to vote for the designated candidate.
Problem regarding legitimacy
The 2004 elections, not the first time that more people vote for the losing candidate. Illegitimately, the president wins.
Ca, Illinois, NY, Mass, East cost States = Al Gore
The rest = Bush
Red America and Blue America: it stands for democratic and republicans but also for conservative Vs intellectual elites, old hippies.
5 different times in the US
Problem especially on Election Day since polls desk shuts at 8 on the East Cost, and its only 3 in Ca. So it may encourage people not to vote with results appearing quickly.
Year 2000 – lots of issues especially in Florida.
The governor was Bush’s brother: fraud issues?
It took weeks to know. After the results, there are speeches where losing candidates admits he lost.
There was an exception with Nixon where he blamed everyone for his failure.
Senate and House of representative meet to decide who the winner is. There’s a vote. Same for the vice-president
Jan 20th, president takes office. Between November and entering office, the president goes through “transition’ when he decide the composition of the Cabinet. Inauguration takes place at the Cathedral. Big ceremony
On Election Day we also vote for representatives from the House of Representative and at least one senator.
There are mid-term elections. Statically, when the president takes office, the congress is friendly, whereas the first term election often goes against the president.
There are State propositions (démocratie directe avec propositions et signatures) but no National proposition.
The primaries
The primary campaign/ the general campaign
Political parties now have conventions during the summer before the elections. The period leading to conventions are dominating by the primaries. Then, there’s a real bi-party system.
Depending on State Law, voters go for party elections (even if it’s a party election, the State organizes it). Depending on the moment, elections can change over time. Since these are party elections, elections can be non-democratic.
Internal party elections choose super voters who then vote for candidates. The first time: it’s an “open primary”. Then, “Closed primary” system chooses the candidate.
Primaries also are aimed to choose senators on State level.
“Caucus” are meetings where people come together to discuss the party’s platform (it’s also about choosing the candidate). 11 States in the USA (often small States) make this caucus possible because very few people come to talk.
Key Issue is the timing of primary caucus. New Hampshire and Ohio often have caucus. In NH, the first primaries are led. Over there, there are very few and educated people so this creates some very interesting debate. That’s where all the media intention is. If you, as a candidate, can’t make it in NH, you’re not going to make it anywhere. Truman and Johnson lost these elections they automatically dropped out.
Super Tuesday: several States hold their primary elections. The State of Florida had a problem with this. It decided to move earlier their elections on January 29th. The democratic national party said Florida couldn’t do this. This year, they are threatening no to show up if they keep this date. Some people even said this was a violation of the constitution. There was the same problem for the republicans. They want to do the same in Florida. Critisism says the candidates wouldn’t not be recognized at a national level if they held there elections earlier.
Primary season
Rep and demo are trying to differentiate from people of their party not the enemy party. That pushes the candidates to hold extreme positions. Then they soften their position and move towards the centre.
During Convention, you know who the candidate is, but not the vice-president. They often pick a candidate running for president who did well, or a regional balancing (someone from the North, you choose then a person from the South).
Often a lack of ideology. It’s about money and professionals.
Place of Media – Image, Competition, Conflict, Personality, Scandals
In the old days, Lincoln led debates with Douglas about the moral and political issues (slavery, …) and people would come and listen to it for hours.
Today, change totally. 99% Americans is reached by TV. Hading internet, newspapers, radio emphasize this idea that every American is reached by politics. Second point is the image of candidates. TV dictates this to Americans. Very few American finally turn up to meetings, they just watch it on TV. Focus on “personality” and “conflict” (personal or between candidates).
Ex : Nixon (conservative, …) and Kennedy (young, catholic, dynamic). They held the first TV debate. The people listening to the debate on radio were much more in favour of Nixon. On TV, it’s the opposite. IMAGE
Also Competition is important rather than discussing on issues. G. Ford often falling down … giving a wrong image of him. Scandals
Reporters talk for at least ¾ of time. Only 7.8 seconds as an average media time of speaking for candidates.
In 2000, 285 million dollars expenditure for campaign - 50% spent in advertising.
In 2004, internet played a major role in campaign and rising money.
Aim of having a neutral media approach.
2/3 of Americans say they already have made up their mind about who to vote for.
Candidates spend as much or more time for fund rising. Financial financing is one of the most important sign of how qualified a president is according to Americans.
In 2008, the historical point of money: 416 million dollars have been raised.
Money comes from : Ca, Ill, Florida and North East.