Pre-elections in the US

[Tjerk12]

Dear American friends.
It is perhaps silly of me, but I don’t understand your pre-elections. At the moment there is this big and a bit funny show with the Republican candidates. People vote for the “best” candidate. But how? When I see the situation in The Netherlands there are only two and a half percent of the voters member of a political party. About 12.000.000 people are potential voters, but only about 300.000 people have a membership of a party. In addition we have 10 parties who have one or more seats in the parliament. One of the major parties nowadays is the PVV, the ultra-rightwing party of Mister Wilders, has only one member, and that is Mister Wilders in person. Pre-elections in The Netherlands would have the format of a nice small bingo event. But in America there are thousands and thousands of voters. Are they all registered members of the Republican Party? Please explain to me how that works.

 

[MaximumT]

I thought the pre-elections were just made within states. Like in... let's say Ohio they get to vote which is their favourite among the republican candidates. And the same is done in let's say Texas. And depending on the outcome, the candidates decide to drop off if they see that people don't want them. Am I right?
I don't live in the US, but this is how I thought the pre-elections were done. Please correct me if I'm wrong. As of late, I've gotten quite interested in politics, but I don't much about the election system in the US besides from the little I learned in school.
What about the democrats? Do they have a pre-election as well even though Obama is a democrat, or is it always the president against a candidate from the opposite politics?

 

[Tjerk12]

Thanks MaximumT.
I think you are right about the first point.
And about your question: as far as I know is Obama the only candidate for the Democrats, so they do not need a pre-election.
But it still leaves the question: how do they select the voters? Only Democrats should judge about Democrats and only Republicans about Republicans. I cannot imagine that all the voters are member of a party. So how do they select them?

 

[etilit]

ok babes..ill explain...

im an idependent...so i cant vote in any primary election...its just for ppl that declare a side..dems or repubs...but now its all about rebublicans..its there chance to show off!!

no one on dems has declared to run aginst Oboma yet...

so....its just a show to see who will run against him lol

and babes...im tired of it all already imagine all the money they spend on this? its so stupid..

 

[topdog]

I'm not surprised that you're confused. The whole thing looks like some kind of presidential campaign and election - but it's not. ITS A REALITY TV GAME SHOW!!

Yes, you can become the Republican presidential candidate this fall in the US! Just play this easy game.

There will be 2,286 delegates this summer at the Republican convention. If you can aculate 1,144 delegate votes, YOU WIN!

The easiest way to do that is to do well in the votes that each state holds to pick their delegates. If you can get enough delegates committed to your side before the convention, then you go to the convention as the nominee.

But there are obstacles.

• Unless you've spent the previous four years aculating a war chest of campaing contributions (like Mitt Romney and Barack Obama,) you start off with very little money. You have to split your time between campaigning and fund raising. So you can't compete everywhere.
  
• And even if you had the money to do that, the primary elections come in big clumps - there are, after all, 50 states that have to do this over a period of just a few months. And no state wants to be left to the end of the process when the nominee is already decided and all the drama is gone. So you have to decide where you are going to compete.
  
• And not all state contests are the same. Some are "winner take all" - the candidate with the most votes gets all of the state's delegates. Others divided the delegates proportionally according to the votes.
  
• Some states don't commit their delegates at all. They can vote for the person who won their state - or not. These are known as "uncommitted" delegates, as the primary elections in these states are often called beauty contests, since they don't really help get you a preemptive win before the convention.

Since anyone can run, but you can't really compete without raising a lot of money, the early strategy is mostly to show that you have "momentum" to attract donors to your cause. That makes the first two contests, Iowa and New Hampshire, particularly important. If you can show some strength in those states, you can attract much needed money to compete in the more expensive media markets in South Carolina and Florida.

Oh, but wait! More complications - some states moved their primaries up ahead of schedule because they want to be voting "when it counts" and are in violation of Republican party rules. So they will lose half their committed delegates at the convention - and that includes New Hampshire, South Carolina, Florida, Arizona and Michigan.

If you can't get enough delegates before the convention (as neither Hillary Clinton nor Barack Obama were able to do in 2008), then you will have to muster your resources at the convention.

The interesting thing about the convention nomination votes is that the delegates are only bound to vote for their designated candidate on the first vote. If no one gets 1,144 on the first roll call, then all bets are off. Every delegate is now free to vote for whoever they want. Although this has not happened for quite a while (parties hate this kind of uncertainty on live television), it used to be where all the back room deals were made in smoke-filled rooms. Eventually late in the night someone would have put together a coalition (or greased enough palms) to come out the winner. So if you think you have the influence and the chutzpah to make a go of it, you can try that kind of last-minute high-wire act.

So start your campaign buses, and go out and kiss those babies and shake those hands!

 

[brmstn69]

Or put simply, the 1% choose a hand full of potential candidates to bankroll, parade them around in some dog and pony show to see which one of them have the best chance of bullshitting the rest of us that they will actually do some good while in office...

Then come election time we the people have to decide which would be less painful... Republicans bleeding us dry to make the rich richer while force feeding us their conservative Christian values and restricting the rights of those whom they feel are morally objectionable i.e. gays... Or Democrats, whom want to poke their noses into every aspect of your life by creating a nanny state to protect us from ourselves while giving all our tax money away to welfare programs for illegal immigrants...

 

[c750dt]

Our political system is a safe for C-SPAN version of lemonparty; a bunch of senile old men fucking around!

 

[boscoe]

Or put simply, the 1% choose a hand full of potential candidates to bankroll, parade them around in some dog and pony show to see which one of them have the best chance of bullshitting the rest of us that they will actually do some good while in office...

Then come election time we the people have to decide which would be less painful... Republicans bleeding us dry to make the rich richer while force feeding us their conservative Christian values and restricting the rights of those whom they feel are morally objectionable i.e. gays... Or Democrats, whom want to poke their noses into every aspect of your life by creating a nanny state to protect us from ourselves while giving all our tax money away to welfare programs for illegal immigrants...

All true. The end result is merely choosing which flavour of the 1% party gets to pretend they have power. Of course, the real power rests with Capitol.

 

[bernardo]

Wow, a lot of real deep cynicism around here?

 

[ritsuka]

We have a convoluted, long-term, dragged out election process, because it makes the news corporations a lot of money to keep it that way (so they can continue making vapid, reactionary daily micro-coverage, reeling from one stupid non-scandal to the next while burying look-alike candidates to promote others, basically like a reality game show), while also limiting elections only to those people who can afford to pay often millions of dollars or convince the super-rich to pay their way. We are supposed to be so excited and riled up based on our party membership when the truth is that both parties do 99% of the same shit--promoting endless war and corporate power, but each party has its own news station(s) that demonize the other executive and party to make it seem just so fucking different, and while many mindless partiers hate when the other party does something, they have nothing but excuses when it's their own party who does the same thing.

I really wish we had short, neat elections like you do in the Netherlands, T-jerk. As it is, we have to remake our democracy from the pile of corporate-funded trash it has become.

 

[brmstn69]

It's official... Hell has frozen over...

I'm in agreement with ritsuka...:rofl:

 

[gb2000ie]

It's official... Hell has frozen over...

I'm in agreement with ritsuka...:rofl:

ROFL - as am I - can hell freeze over twice?

B.

 

[Tjerk12]

I really wish we had short, neat elections like you do in the Netherlands, T-jerk. As it is, we have to remake our democracy from the pile of corporate-funded trash it has become.

The Netherlands is a small country; we have only about sixteen million people (as New Delhi). But you can’t say that we have a short election. When the new elected government starts, in fact the new elections start. That is the price we pay for modern democracy. Polls are key determinants in the board, not because of good governance but to please potential voters. The old established parties behave in this respect somewhat decent, but our youngest party, the ultra rightwing PVV (Partij Voor de Vrijheid, Party for freedom), is catastrophic. An investigation into the question if bleaching your hair affects your brain makes sense.

 

[JamesL]

Hi Tjerk
Here in the U.S. we have basically two political parties, the Republican and the Democratic Party. When you register to vote you choose one or the other or you can choose to be Independent, you choose neither. Independents can vote in General Elections but may not be able to vote in a primary. Some states will allow Independents to vote in Primaries while others won't. We are currently running through the primary part of the election when members of each party choose their candidates to run for President. While the Republican primary is generating the most attention, with Mitt Romney and Newt Gingerich trying to become the Republican candidate, President Obama is also on the ballot for President on the Democratic party but because he is unopposed, he doesn't get much attention in the press.
Each state in the U.S. gets to choose the date of its own primary so they vary from state to state. At the end of the primaries the Republicans will hold a convention where they will publically announce who will be the candidate for President. Generally we will know before the convention who the candidate will be but there is a chance that if no Republican candidate gets most of the votes we could have a brokered convention. If both Gingrich and Romney have about the same number of delegates then one of the other candidates, like Ron Paul, can throw his votes to one or the other and make them the winner. In return Ron Paul will gain great influence with the winner of the primary and may be chosen to be Vice President or allowed to have great influence on the platform (the issues the party will decide that are important in the election).
There will also be a Democratic convention but we already know who will win that election, Obama.
After the two conventions we will shift from Primaries to the General Election. This will be held on the same day, the second Tuesday in November, 2012. It will be held on the same day in all the states so we will know the next day who the President will be. The new President will be sworn in on January 9, 2013 and begin his term at that time.
If you have any further questions, let me know.
JamesL

 

[Tjerk12]

Hi JamesL.
Thanks for the information. I do understand a lot more now. Some last questions.
Is it a duty to register or is it free?
When you don’t register can you take part of the final elections?
Is it a duty to vote for the final elections? (In The Netherlands you are free to vote. Only 60 – 70 percent actually do.)

 

[topdog]

To answer your specific questions:

1. It is free to register and vote.
2. If you don't register, you cannot vote. When you vote your name is checked off the list of local registered voters (so no one can vote twice).
3. Voting is not a requirement. If you are registered, you are free to vote or not vote as you choose.

I will just add three additions to James' excellent summary:

• The various rules about voting in the primary elections (happening right now) are mostly set by the political parties, in coordination with each state government. So in a single state the Republican winner might get all the Republican delegates, while the Democratic candidates split their delegates proportionally - every candidate walks away with some percentage of delegates.
  .
• Interesting fact: At the political party conventions this summer, delegates are only required to vote for their candidate in the first vote. If one candidate does not have a majority of the votes, delegates are then free to vote for whoever they want, and another vote is taken.
  .
  So all these state by state elections that we are going through right now are meaningless after the first vote. (This is the "brokered convention" that James mentions.) When that happens, anyone can take the nomination - even someone who didn't run in the primary elections - if they can convince enough delegates to vote for them.
  .
• The presidential campaigns in the US are actually fairly short - there is barely two months from time a candidate is nominated in the summer to the fall elections. On the other hand, the groundwork and fund-raising needed to get the nominations starts years before that.

 

[iryhousen]

To add more confusion and my own crackpot theory into the mix, 2012 should be a better year for Obama than 2008. Years ending in 8 are not good for Democrats because it's just before the census and reapportionment of districts. Years ending in a 2 are better for Democrats because that's after reapportionment. People probably move around more in the US than other countries, and the smallest states never lose the minimum 3 electoral votes. The seven smallest states have about the same number of electoral votes as Illinois, but have a much smaller combined population. Only three Democrats were ever elected POTUS in a year ending in an 8, Jackson, Truman and Obama. Even Cleveland, the sitting president, lost out in 1888, but was re-elected in 1892.

The election process is basically a media circus, which they promote to get as much ad revenue as possible from people willing to run. A candidate can easily spend the amount equal to an entire school budget for a large district on a losing campaign.

 

[Tjerk12]

To add more confusion and my own crackpot theory into the mix, 2012 should be a better year for Obama than 2008. Years ending in 8 are not good for Democrats because it's just before the census and reapportionment of districts. Years ending in a 2 are better for Democrats because that's after reapportionment. People probably move around more in the US than other countries, and the smallest states never lose the minimum 3 electoral votes. The seven smallest states have about the same number of electoral votes as Illinois, but have a much smaller combined population. Only three Democrats were ever elected POTUS in a year ending in an 8, Jackson, Truman and Obama. Even Cleveland, the sitting president, lost out in 1888, but was re-elected in 1892.

The election process is basically a media circus, which they promote to get as much ad revenue as possible from people willing to run. A candidate can easily spend the amount equal to an entire school budget for a large district on a losing campaign.

Great stuff, thanks. I have a friend who keeps such lists for the LOTTO (a German lottery). Actually he never wins.

 

[JamesL]

Hi Tjerk,
Yes, you can register to vote or not register to vote, the choice is up to you. There is no financial cost to voting although in the past, in the south there was a poll tax used to keep Black people from voting. This was after the Civil War, after the slaves had been freed.
One of the confusing things about elections in the U.S. is that the rules about who gets to vote is controlled by the various states so regulations vary from state to state. In some states you can register on election day but in most states you have to register a few weeks before the election. In some states an independent can vote in the Republican primary while in other states you can't.
In the U.S. typically only about 50% or 60% of the people vote but it depends on the election.
If you have any more questions, just ask. Because of the complexity of this issue its probably better just to answer your questions rather than try to answer all your questions in advance in a single article, that would require a very skilled writer.
JamesL