The Nominating Process
• Nomination- the first step in the process of candidate
selection; naming the candidate who will seek office.
• General Elections- regularly scheduled elections at which
voters make the final selection of officeholders.
• There are 5 ways in which nominations are made in the
United States:
1. Self-Announcement
2. Caucus
3. Convention
4. Direct primary
5. petition
The Nominating Process
1. Self Announcement
• Oldest and simplest way in the nomination process.
• A person who wants to run for office simply announces
that fact.
• When would self-announcement be used?
2. Caucus- a group of people who meet to select candidates
they will support in an upcoming election.
• Used in the early periods of United States history.
• Usually the caucus nominating process was completed by
the legislative and congressional caucuses.
• Caucus at the national level ended with the election of
1824.
The Nominating Process
3. The Convention
• The convention nominating process begins with local
officials who nominate a candidate to attend the
next rung on the convention ladder.
• This process repeats itself until it reaches the State
convention, where the nominees pick candidates for
governor and other state offices.
• The state convention also sends delegates to the
party’s national convention.
• This process, however, became easily manipulated at
the state level and is rarely used today.
The Nominating Process
4. The Direct Primary- an intra-party election.
• Most states use this process today.
• Two basic forms of the direct primary are in use
today:
a. Closed Primary- a party’s nominating election in
which only declared party members can vote (24
states).
b. Open Primary- a party’s nominating election in
which any qualified voter can cast a ballot (26 states).
-Another version of the open primary is the blanket primary where every
voter was handed one ballot with a long list of all the candidates for every
nomination to be made at the primary.
The Nominating Process
5. Petition
• Nomination by petition is used rather widely at
the local level.
• Candidates are nominated by means of
petitions signed by a certain number of
qualified voters in the election district.
• This process is used for nominating minor party
and independent candidates.
-Why would they have to use this process?
Elections
• Election Day for State offices is often held on
the same day Congress has set for national
elections.
-The “Tuesday after the first Monday” in November of even
numbered years.
• Absentee Voting: a process by which voters can
vote without actually going to their polling
places.
• Precincts and Polling Places
-Precinct is the smallest unit for the conduct of elections.
-Polling Places are the places in which people living in a precinct
actually go to vote.
Ballots
• Ballot- the device by which a voter marks their
choice in an election.
• Australian Ballot- 1) It is printed at public expense. 2) It lists
all names of candidates in an election. 3) It is given out only at the
polls, one to each voter. 4) It is marked in secret.
*This is the basic form of the ballot in America today*
• Other Types of Ballots include:
-The Office Group Ballot
- The Party Column Ballot
- Sample Ballots
- Bedsheet Ballots (primarily where you see ballot fatigue)