Voting - Nominating

Ch 7 Sec 1

NominationO Selecting a candidate for officeO First step in an election

Methods of nominatingO Self-announcementO PetitionO CaucusO ConventionO Direct primary

Self-announcementO A person declares him to herself to

be a candidate

PetitionO A candidate gets a certain number of

qualified voters to sign a petition

ConventionO A political party’s members meet to

select candidates

Direct PrimaryO An election held within a party to

pick its candidates

Closed PrimaryO A primary election in which only

registered party members may vote

Open PrimaryO A primary election in which any

registered voter may vote

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 BallotO 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

PrivateO IndividualsO FamiliesO 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 moneyO 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 MoneyO https://

www.opensecrets.org/pres12/search_donor.php