Nominations - PowerPoint Presentation

Slide1

Nominations

AP GovernmentSlide2

Nomination

A

nomination

is a party's official endorsement of a candidate for

office

Success is generally based upon having money, media attention, and

momentum

The manipulation of these elements is known as

c

ampaign strategy

The goal of the nomination process is to win the support of a majority of the delegates at the

national party

conventionSlide3

Convention

The convention does not provide the same

type

of drama it once

did

Convention drama revolved around the open voting of delegates

as

they tried to select presidential and vice presidential candidates

In today’s primary races,

by the time we get to the

convention it is extremely apparent who the candidate for president and vice president will be

The national convention does help to setup the

party

platform

This is the party's statement of its goals and policies for the next four

yearsSlide4

Caucuses

From January through June on an election year

caucuses

and

primaries

take place in each state

in order to begin the process of determining

who the nominees for office will

be

In a

caucus

system,

voters must show up at a fixed time and attend an open

meeting where citizens openly discuss their candidate preferences

The meetings generally last between

one or two

hours

Because

of such a time commitment, caucuses have lower turnout then

primaries

Iowa has the first caucus of an election season and helps set a standard for those who get media

attention Slide5

Primaries

There are two main types of

primaries

:

Open primaries

allow

anyone, regardless of party, to take part in the vote for a

candidate

A

closed primary

restricts voting to the party that you are registered

for

Other types of primaries include:

Direct primaries

are

preliminary election in which a party's candidates for public office are nominated by direct vote of the people

.

Invisible primaries

are

the first phase of the presidential nomination process, where candidates attempt to gain front-runner status and raise moneySlide6

Delegates

Delegates

can be awarded through a

winner take all

system (a system in which if you win the election, you get all delegates) or through proportional representation (meaning that if you got half of the votes, you get half of the delegates.

How delegates are awarded varies based upon party and the state in which the election took place.Slide7

Elimination

Most of the delegates for the Democratic and Republican national conventions are selected in

primaries and caucuses

In today's system 2/3rds of all delegates are chosen within 6 weeks of the Iowa caucus.

One major event, in which many states hold primaries and caucuses at the same time, is

called Super Tuesday

This is a result of

frontloading,

or the process of moving up a primary in the calendar so as to be more influential

The amount of delegates and the proportion in which they are appropriated differs based upon party and state.

The primaries work as an elimination system in order to pare down the nominees down to one candidate for the republican and democratic party Slide8

Issues

Criticisms of the

primary system:

Iowa and New Hampshire get a disproportionate advantage in setting the momentum for candidates

Prominent politicians find it difficult to take time out from their duties to run

Money plays too big a role in the caucuses and primaries

Participation in primaries and caucuses ins low unrepresentative

The system gives too much power to the media Slide9

Fixing the weaknesses?

Proposals to deal with the issues with the primary system include:

Holding a

national primary

This would enlist all voters to vote in a primary election at the same

This could theoretically cut down on the large amount of candidate travel and would stop early voting states from controlling the agenda of the candidates

Holding

regional primaries

This would allow for each time zone or region of the country to vote at the same time