Presidential Election

1. Presidential Election Chapter 7 Section 3

2. Election: Section 3-Part 2 Presidential Nomination and Election • The electoral college is a body of electors chosen By the states to vote for president and vice president. How the Electoral College Works

3. Presidential Nomination & Election • What is the Electoral College?U.S. Presidents are not elected directly by voters. • Instead, the Electoral College elects each President based on how people vote in each state. • States are given a certain number of electors based on that state’s number of Representatives and Senators. • The more-densely populated states have more electors than less-populated states. In most states, the candidate who wins a majority of the popular vote wins all of that state’s electoral votes. • There are 538 electoral votes, so a candidate must win just over half of them, 270, or more to win.

4. Presidential Nomination & Election • How presidential candidates are chosen: • Parties hold national conventions, where delegates nominate candidates. • Political conventions are huge meetings held by political parties. In the United States, the national political parties hold their conventions during presidential election years. These massive gatherings are attended by thousands of delegates, members of the media, and other party members.

5. Presidential Nomination & Election • What happens at a political party’s national convention? • Each major party holds a national convention after the primaries and caucuses are finished. The parties make official their choice of one candidate for president and one candidate for vice president. (The presidential contest is usually settled by the primaries and caucuses before the conventions are held.) • Conventions have other functions besides the official selection of candidates for president and vice president. These gatherings also give members of the political parties a chance to discuss and decide on their party’s platform, or where the party stands on important issues like education, health care, and foreign policy. • Large portions of the conventions are televised in prime time. In addition to being the official kick off for the presidential campaigns, the conventions serve as extended infomercials for the two main parties to get voters interested and excited about their candidates and platforms.

6. Presidential Nomination & Election How convention delegates are chosen: • Party members select delegates in presidential primaries. • What is a delegate? • A delegate is a member of a political party who helps determine the party’s presidential nominee. • Delegates are usually longtime party members, and they vote on the nominee at the party’s national convention (see below). • Most of them are required to vote for a certain candidate. Their vote is determined by the result of primaries or caucuses in their home states. • Some delegates are “unpledged,” and can vote for whomever they wish. • What is a super delegate? • A super delegate has the power to fly during their party’s convention. No, not really. A super delegate is typically a member of Congress, a Governor, and/or a longtime member of the Democratic National Committee. • Their loyalty to a particular candidate is unpledged, meaning they can vote for any candidate they wish. The Republican party does not use super delegates, only the Democratic party does.

7. Presidential Nomination & Election • Format for national conventions: • speeches • approving the party platform • floor demonstrations by delegates • state-by-state roll call • What happens after the conventions? • The two major candidates will officially launch their campaigns. Although both sides have already been making speeches and running ads, their campaign activities will intensify, and the candidates will take part in televised debates. • There will be three televised debates between the presidential candidates, and one between the two vice presidential candidates. • The first will take place on October 3 in Denver, Colorado. The second will be held in Hempstead, New York, on October 16. • And the third will be take place on October 22 in Boca Raton, Florida. A vice presidential debate will be held on October 11 in Danville, Kentucky. • The general election will be held on November 6, 2012.

8. Presidential Nomination & Election • Can a President lose the popular vote and still win the presidency?Yes. Most Presidents win both the popular vote (the total votes cast by U.S. citizens) and the Electoral College vote. • But a few have not. In 2000, Democrat Al Gore won the popular vote, but Republican George W. Bush won the Electoral College vote and the election.

9. Presidential Nomination & Election • What are red states and blue states? • Red states are those that tend to vote for the Republican candidate in presidential races. • Blue states tend to vote for the Democrat. • These nicknames have come about largely because of television news shows. • These programs use maps to show whether a Republican or a Democrat has won a state’s Electoral College votes. • TV news shows tend to display Republican states as red and Democratic ones as blue. • In 2000, reporters began using the terms “red state” and “blue state,” and the nicknames stuck.