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Election
Political Parties
The Constitution says nothing about political
parties, but over time the US has in fact
develop two-party system
The two leading parties are the Democrats
and Republicans
There are other parties such as Green ,
Libertarian, Constitution, Communist,
several Socialist, but they do not have much
power
Political Parties
To distinguish between the parties is often
difficult
The traditional terms of "right", "left",
"conservative", and "liberal" do not quite fit
the American system
Some believe that in reality it is one party
with some differences here and there
Political Parties
While some voters will vote a "straight
ticket" in an election, many do not.
It is quite common, in fact, to find
Democrats in Congress voting for a
Republican President's legislation, quite a
few Republicans voting against it, and so
on
Elections
American citizens who are at least 18
years of age have the right to vote
The must register as voters
Voter registration and voting among
minorities has increased during recent
years as a result of the Civil Rights
movement
There is some concern, however, about
the number of citizens who could vote in
national elections but do not
Elections
Elections
There are 50 different registration laws in the
US- one for each state.
Americans are much more interested in local
politics than in those at the federal level
Elections
The national Presidential elections really
consist of two separate campaigns
One is for the nomination of candidates at
national party conventions
The Other is to win the actual election
The nomination race is a competition
between members of the same party
Then among two candidates from 2
parties, Democrats and Republicans
Elections
Elections
Elections
2016 Presidential
Election
Role of Special
Interests
2016 Presidential
Election
Amount raised by candidates:
$1,310 million
Amount raised by super PACs
supporting their campaigns:
$594 million
2016 Presidential
Election
Clinton
Clinton
Clinton
Clinton
Clinton
Clinton
Clinton
Clinton
Clinton
SuperPAC
$175,968,142
Campaign
$497,808,791
Carey
$9,422,574
SuperPAC
$0
America's Teacher
s
45Committee
SuperPAC
$1,828
501c4
N/A
SuperPAC
$0
SuperPAC
$11,640
Carey
$3,615,384
Republicans for
Hillary
Faith Voters for Hil
lary
Ready PAC
2016 Presidential
Election
Trump
$247,541,449
Trump
$585,318
Make America Nu
mber 1
$19,586,131
Trump
Trump
SuperPAC
$131,623
2016 Presidential
Election
Trump
$1,742,684
Trump
Rebuilding Ameri
ca Now
Trump Victory
SuperPAC
$20,335,192
PAC
$156,513
Trump
Trump
$179
Trump
Our Principles PA
C
SuperPAC
$19,007,853
Trump
Great America PA
C
Carey
$16,295,788
2016 Presidential
Election
Trump
Trump
$47,128
$12,966
Trump
America's Trump
Card SuperPAC
SuperPAC
$0
Trump
Committee for
American
Sovereignty
SuperPAC
$443,834
Trump
TrumPAC
SuperPAC
$0
Trump
Make America
Awesome
SuperPAC
$39,499
Super PACs
Super PACs are a relatively new type of
committee that arose following the July
2010 federal court decision
in a case known as SpeechNow.org v.
Federal Election Commission.
Super PACs
Technically known as independent
expenditure-only committees,
super PACs may raise unlimited sums of
money from corporations, unions,
associations and individuals,
then spend unlimited sums to overtly
advocate for or against political
candidates.
Super PACs
As of November 14, 2016,
2,398 groups organized as super PACs
have reported total receipts of
$1,574,809,229
and total independent expenditures of
$1,117,746,826 in the 2016 cycle.
Lobbyist Donors
Representatives of specific companies
that donate money for candidates.
Donors and lobbyists already shaping
Trumps drain the swamp administration
Its not just corporate lobbyists who are
playing early, visible roles in the new
power structure.
Lobbyist Donors
Some of Trumps biggest political donors
are shaping the incoming administration,
including Rebekah Mercer, a daughter of
billionaire Robert Mercer,
who is figuring prominently in behind-thescenes discussions, according to people
familiar with the transition.
Bundler
A person or corporation to collect money from
Individuals or corporations and donate to
candidate(s).
Sweet and Low By Rich Cohen (Book)
Role of a company to act as a bundler to
support a candidate for the industry
Collected $1000 checks from all employees
and gave to their special interest candidate.
They paid back all employees with $1000
bonus.
Bundler Clinton
Bundler Trump
Donald Trumps campaign has set a
historic standard for lack of transparency.
In addition to refusing to release his tax
returns, or any evidence of his charitable
giving,
he has also declined to make public the
names of any bundlerssupporters
who
collect bundles of checks to give to the
campaign.
Superdelegates
796 (2008 number) elected officials and
Democratic Party leaders
They are free to cast their votes at the
convention as they see fit.
Include all Democratic governors and
members of the party.
Their judgment may not match the will of a
majority of voters.
Superdelegates
The superdelegates are made up of
members of Congress, governors, and
former presidents.
And unlike delegates, they are not
required to indicate preference for a
certain candidate and can vote how they
please.
Superdelegates
Created in 1982 to restore some of the
power over the nomination process to
party insiders tempering the zeal of party
activists.
About 15 to 20 percent of the delegates at
Democratic conventions are
superdelegates.
Reference: Nagourney, A & Hulse, C. New York Times No. 54,216, Sunday, February 10, 2008
Electoral College
Voters in each state choose among slates
of electors pledged to one candidate or
another.
These electors- collectively called the
electoral College- in turn their votes to pick
the president.
Electoral College
Number of electoral votes in each state is
equal to total number of the house and
senate for that state.
For example Texas with 32 electoral votes
in 2000 election gave Bush 32 votes, even
the results was Bush 66% and Gore 33%.
It make sense that Bush gets 21 votes
and gore gets 11 votes.
Electoral College
The architects of the US political system
established the Electoral College process
because:
They did not trust the average voter to
understand the issues
Or to know the political leaders of the new
nation well enough to make informed
choices
Electoral College
State legislators chose Electors,
exemplary citizens
Electors choose the president of the US
Electoral College
Objections to Electoral College in favor of a
direct popular election:
The possibility of electing a minority president
The risk of so-called faithless Electors
The possibility role of the Electoral College in
depressing voter turnout
Its failure to accurately reflect the national
popular will
Electoral College
Those who argue that we cant question
the wisdom of the Founding Fathers.
Nonsense, we tend to forget the Founding
Fathers werent wise at all
when it came to voting rights:
Electoral College
They denied the vote to women
They denied the vote to black
They didnt trust the people to elect U.S.
senators
They didnt trust the people to elect
president
Electoral College
Presidential Election 2000 Popular Vote
Voters Turn On
Voter turnout this year dipped to nearly its
lowest point in two decades.
While election officials are still tabulating
ballots,
the 126 million votes already counted
means about 55% of voting age citizens
cast ballots this year.
Political Attitudes
Americans seem almost instinctively to dislike
government and politicians
Neighborhoods, communities, and states
have a strong pride in their ability to deal with
their problems themselves, and this feeling is
especially strong in the West
Americans are seldom impressed by
government officials
In their films and fiction as well as in television
series, American often portray corrupt
politicians and incompetent officials
Political Attitudes
Is everybody equal in the US - the land that
stated - in its Declaration of Independence that "all men are created equal?"
No, of course not, some have advantages of
birth, wealth, or talent.
Some have been to better schools
Some have skins or accents or beliefs that
their neighbors don't specially like
Political Attitudes
Yet the ideal is ever present in a land
where so many different races, language
groups, cultural and religious belief,
hopes, dreams, traditional hates and
dislikes have come together
One American, a Nobel Prize winner in
literature, gave this opinion:
Political Attitudes
"We are able to believe that our
government is weak, stupid, overbearing,
dishonest, and inefficient, and at the same
time we are deeply convinced that it is the
best government in the world, and we
would like to impose it upon everyone else"
Of course many Americans would disagree
in part or with all
Political Attitudes
There is a bumper sticker in the USA, that
some people put it on their car to expose
aggressive nature of US government