How does the election work?
note: This originally started as a post to the blog, and quickly became unwieldy as a simple post. I’ve converted it into a page, and we’ll see how that works out.
I take for granted having a father who had a PhD in Political Science some days… OK, most of the time! I figured with all the mis-information out there, I would post something definitive on how the election process actually works in this country.
How do we elect a president?
Sounds simple enough, but most folks don’t have a firm grasp on the fundamentals. Let’s take a step back as we hit the home stretch and look at “how it all works”.
Step 1. The primaries / Cacus
Talk about a general clusterfuck.
Caucuses were the original method for selecting candidates but have decreased in number since the primary was introduced in the early 1900′s. In states that hold caucuses a political party announces the date, time, and location of the meeting. Generally any voter registered with the party may attend. At the caucus, delegates are chosen to represent the state’s interests at the national party convention. Prospective delegates are identified as favorable to a specific candidate or uncommitted. After discussion and debate an informal vote is taken to determine which delegates should be chosen.
What about the famous “Iowa Cacus”?
Now we get into some pandering.
Iowa, the caucuses themselves are local party precinct meetings where registered Republicans and Democrats gather, discuss the candidates and vote for their candidate of choice for their party’s nomination (Iowa caucuses actually occur every two years — in non-presidential-election years, participants generally discuss party platform issues). In both parties, the purpose of the caucus vote is to select delegates to attend a county convention — each caucus sends a certain number of delegates, based on the population it represents. The delegates at the county convention in turn select delegates to go to the congressional district state convention, and those delegates choose the delegates that go to the national convention.
The Republican caucus voting system in Iowa is relatively straightforward: You come in, you vote, typically through secret ballot, and the percentages of the group supporting each candidate decides what delegates will go on to the county convention.
The Democrats have a more complex system — in fact, it’s one of the most complex pieces of the entire presidential election. In a typical caucus, registered democrats gather at the precinct meeting places (there are close to 2,000 precincts statewide), supporters for each candidate have a chance to make their case, and then the participants gather into groups supporting particular candidates (undecided voters also cluster into a group). In order for a particular group to be viable, they must have a certain percentage of the all the caucus participants. If they don’t have enough people, the group disbands, and its members go to another group. The percentage cut-off is determined by the number of delegates assigned to the precinct. It breaks down like this:
If the precinct has only one delegate, the group with the most people wins the delegate vote, and that’s it.
- If the precinct has only two delegates, each group needs 25 percent to be viable.
- If the precinct has only three delegates, each group needs one-sixth of the caucus participants.
- If the precinct has four or more delegates, each group needs at least 15 percent of the caucus participants.
Once the groups are settled, the next order of business is to figure out how many of that precinct’s delegates each group (and by extension, each candidate) should win. Here’s the formula:
(Number of people in the group * number of delegates)/ number of caucus participants
For example, say a precinct has four delegates, 200 caucus participants, and 100 people support John Doe. To figure out how many delegates you assign to John Doe, you would multiply 100 by four, to get 400. You divide 400 by 200 and get 2. So John Doe gets two of the four delegates.
The media reports the “winner,” based on the percentage of delegates going to each candidate. This isn’t exactly accurate, since it’s actually the state convention that decides what delegates go to the national convention, but more often than not, there’s a clear statewide winner after the caucuses.
The convoluted caucus system dates back to 1796, when American political parties emerged, and it hasn’t changed a whole lot since then. Most states eventually replaced this system, because as political parties became more centralized and sophisticated in the early twentieth century, party leaders or “bosses” were perceived as exerting too much control over choosing a nominee. To give individual voters more influence over the nomination process, party leaders created the presidential primary system. Florida held the first primary in 1901 marking the beginning of the presidential primary we know today.
Dramatic caucus reforms and rules that the Democratic Party instituted at the state level in the 1970s changed the system significantly. Designed to improve and open up caucuses to all party members, the requirements actually made caucuses more difficult to manage and inadvertently led to the rise of primaries. To help states coordinate the election days of both parties, the Republicans also changed their system.
Step 2. The General Election
With the exception of Nebraska and Maine, the remaining delegates for the presidential vote are winner take all.
How does this one work?
The vote is a simple plurality, first past the post or winner-takes-all, a voting system in which a single winner is chosen in a given constituency by having more votes than any other individual representative; there is no requirement that the winner gain an absolute majority of votes.
Step 3. The Electoral College
Each state has a number of electors equal to the number of its U.S. senators (2 in each state) plus the number of its U.S. representatives, which varies according to the state’s population. Currently, the Electoral College includes 538 electors, 535 for the total number of congressional members, and three who represent Washington, D.C., as allowed by the 23rd Amendment. On the Monday following the second Wednesday in December, the electors of each state meet in their respective state capitals to officially cast their votes for president and vice president. These votes are then sealed and sent to the president of the Senate, who on Jan. 6 opens and reads the votes in the presence of both houses of Congress. The winner is sworn into office at noon Jan. 20. Most of the time, electors cast their votes for the candidate who has received the most votes in that particular state. However, there have been times when electors have voted contrary to the people’s decision, which is entirely legal.
If you’re wondering how someone becomes an elector, it turns out it’s not the exact same process across the board. It can actually differ from state to state. In general, though, the two most common ways are:
- The elector is nominated by his or her state party committee (perhaps to reward many years of service to the party).
- The elector “campaigns” for a spot and the decision is made during a vote held at the state’s party convention.
There’s the how, but what about the “what” — as in, “What are the required qualifications of an elector?” There really aren’t any. According to the National Archives and Records (NARA) Web site, “the U.S. Constitution contains very few provisions relating to the qualifications of electors.” While the constitution doesn’t dictate what an elector should know or be able to do, it does suggest who or what an elector cannot be:
- He or she cannot be a Representative or Senator
- He or she cannot be a high-ranking U.S. official in a position of “trust or profit”
- He or she cannot be someone who has “engaged in insurrection or rebellion” against the U.S.
Now, what about the “who?” Who is it that gets nominated or voted in and assigned to the post?
Usually, electors are people who are highly politically active in their party (be it Democrat, Green, Libertarian, Republican …) or connected somehow to the political arena, such as: activists, party leaders, elected officials of the state and even people who have ties (political and/or personal) to the Presidential candidates, themselves.
The final electors for each state are voted on by the state’s residents on voting day. In many states, the electors’ names are printed on the ballots — where those names “sit” depends on the state. For example, the electors could be listed directly under the presidential candidates’ names (Democrats with the Democratic nominee, Libertarians with the Libertarian nominee, Republicans with the Republican nominee and so on) or simply grouped by party somewhere else on the ballot. And, of course, the names might not even be listed at all. Essentially, it is the electors who get voted “in” who end up casting the “real” vote. Hold on, it seems like the last two sentences don’t go together, “How can someone be voted “in” if they’re not even on a ballot?”
The key is this part, “A vote for the candidates for President and Vice-President named on the ballot is a vote for the electors…” This is the case for 48 states — it’s known as the “winner-take-all system.” The other system, known as the “district system,” is observed in both Maine and Nebraska. In these states, two electors’ votes are made based on the candidate who received the most votes statewide. The remaining electoral votes go by congressional districts, awarding the vote to the candidate who received the most votes in each district.
Now, in regard to “winner-take-all” states, keep in mind what we said in the last section: Most of the time, electors cast their votes for the candidate who has received the most votes in that particular state. However, there have been times when electors have voted contrary to the people’s decision, which is entirely legal. Although if you do vote against your party, you’ll most likely be simultaneously forfeiting your post as elector and you may even incur a hefty fine
