Chapter Four
The Politics of
Elections and
Parties
Voting
• Obstacles to Voting
• Democratization of the Ballot
Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
4-2
Electoral Politics
• Primaries
• Elections
• Administering Elections
Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
4-3
Figure 4.1: Sample Portion of Election Ballot
for Harris County, Texas, 2002
Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
4-4
Party Structure
• Temporary Party Organization
•
•
•
•
Precinct Conventions
County and District Conventions
State Conventions
Texas’s Presidential Primary-Caucus
Convention
Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
4-5
Figure 4.2:
Texas Political
Party
Organization
Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
4-6
Party Structure
• Selection of National Convention
Delegates
• Permanent Party Organization
Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
4-7
Political Democracy
•
•
•
•
Ideology
An Overview of Texas Political History
Electoral Trends
Third Parties
Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
4-8
Table 4.1: Growth of Republican Party
Officeholders
Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
4-9
Racial/Ethnic Politics
• Latinos
• African Americans
Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
4-10
Women in Politics
• Number of women elected to office in
Texas is increasing
Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
4-11
Political Campaigns
• Conducting Campaigns in the Twenty-First
Century
• Campaign Reform
• Campaign Finance
Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
4-12
Selected Reading
• “AWOL: The Texas Democrats Insist
They’ve Still Got Some Fight Left in Them.
So Why Are They Disserting the
Battlefield?” by Evan Smith
Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
4-13