Voting - Nominating
Ch 7 Sec 1
Nomination
O Selecting a candidate for office
O First step in an election
Methods of nominating
O Self-announcement
O Petition
O Caucus
O Convention
O Direct primary
Self-announcement
O A person declares him to herself to be a
candidate
Petition
O A candidate gets a certain number of
qualified voters to sign a petition
Convention
O A political party’s members meet to select
candidates
Direct Primary
O An election held within a party to pick its
candidates
Closed Primary
O A primary election in which only registered
party members may vote
Open Primary
O A primary election in which any registered
voter may vot
Elections Procedures (Sec 2)
Elections – governed by state
law
O Aspects of national elections such as dates
are governed by federal law
O National elections are the Tuesday after the
first Monday in November in even-numbered
years
O Absentee voting is usually allowed if unable
to get to regular polling places
O Voting takes place in voting districts called
precincts
O Within the precincts, voters cast their votes
at polling places
O A ballot is used to register a person’s vote
Australian Ballot
O Most states use a form of the Australian
ballot - either an office-group ballot or a
party column ballot
Money and Elections (Sec 3)
O Parties and their candidates get money from
two basic sources: private and PACs
Private
O Individuals
O Families
O Candidates themselves
Political Action Committees
O The political arm of special-interest groups
O All campaign money from a special-interest
group has to go through its PAC
Soft and hard money
O Soft – money given to State and local party
organizations for such “party-building
activities” as voter registration or party
mailings and advertisements
O Hard – money given to a campaign that is
subject to reporting requirement and in
limited amounts
O 2012 Presidential Money