Politics For Dummies: Presidential Election

by Nayna Shah

This is (almost, about-to-be, practically) the moment you’ve all been waiting for! So really it’s the moment before the moment you’ve all been waiting for, so the hold off on the massive celebrations until next week. You see, because you are all officially political party experts now, I thought it was time to begin discussing the (drum roll please…) 2012 election! But THEN, I realized that some of us may not even know the steps of the presidential nomination and election process. So my dear political pupils, it is with my most sincere heartfelt condolences that I must postpone our discussion of the election until sometime in the near future. Until then, it is my job to make sure that you become election-process experts. So put on your seat belts because this is about to get craaaaazy!

Let’s start at the very beginning, a very good place to start! (I hope you caught that Sound of Music reference. If not, shame on you). ANYWAYS, you must first know that to be the president of the United States, you must have been born in the United States (or born to two parents who are US citizens), must be at least 35 years of age, and must have lived in the United States for 14 years. Unfortunately there is no “questions, comments, concerns” box on these rules, because they are listed in the Constitution. Therefore, if you are a presidential hopeful who does not meet these initial requirements, James Madison would probably just say “sucks to suck!”

Even if you are 35 or older, born in the US, and a resident for 14 or more years, there is still a long road ahead of you until you can chill in the White House. A presidential election is held every four years, and the campaigning process begins a long time before an election is held. Depending on the preceding presidential term, nominations for candidates need to happen in either one or both parties. For example, in 2012, President Obama will run for reelection against whichever candidate the Republican Party nominates. Because presidents who have already served for one term usually run for a second term, the party they belong to does not need to complete the nomination process (Obama is already their nominee). It is up to the Republican Party to nominate a candidate to run against Barack Obama in the 2012 election. In the 2016 election, assuming Obama had won the 2012 election, he would have already served as president for two terms, so both parties would need to nominate a new candidate.

Currently, the Republican Party is hard at work picking out their candidates that have the greatest chance of becoming elected. As of right now, some of the well-known candidates for nomination are Michelle Bachmann, Newt Gingrich, Jon Huntsman, Ron Paul, Rick Perry, and Mitt Romney. These candidates campaign across the country, establishing a platform of beliefs and trying to enlist support from Americans. They make speeches, create television ads, and participate in debates against the other nomination candidates. So yes, next time you turn on your TV and see seven or so adults standing next to each other at podiums, that is a debate you should watch and not an invitation to change the channel to Glee or something.

Beginning in January, states will start to hold primary elections to decide which of the Republican candidates will receive the party’s nomination. States hold either a primary election or a caucus. The primary difference between a primary election and a caucus (wow no pun intended there!) is that in a primary, the ballots are private, but in a caucus people are gathered in a local setting and openly decide on a candidate. Today, caucuses are used in only 14 states and Washington DC, and primaries are used in all the other states. One of the most notable caucuses is the Iowa caucus, because it is the first of the year (happening on January 3rd in 2012); the New Hampshire primary is also famous, because it is always the first primary to happen. States that hold primaries can choose to hold either an open primary or a closed primary. In open primary, any registered voter can vote to nominate a candidate. In a closed primary, only voters who have registered under a specific party can vote and must vote for a nominee in their party. New Jersey, for example, has closed primaries.

There is a little twist to the system. What people vote on in the primaries is only indirectly the candidate. What the vote really goes toward are the state delegates to the national party convention. Each state has a specific number of delegates for each party (based on state population) that attend their party’s convention. New Jersey has 50 democratic delegates and 172 republican delegates. When New Jersey votes in its republican primary, the candidate that wins the primary will automatically get the vote of each of the delegates when he or she attends the National Republican Party Convention. Whichever one of the nominees wins primaries/caucuses in the most states will have the most delegates to vote for them at the convention, and therefore will win the nomination.

Keep in mind, however, that the Republican and Democratic parties have different rules when it comes to delegates. I told you about the Republican rules because it is relevant to the upcoming election, but if we’re looking ahead to 2016, I think it’s important for you to know the Democratic Party’s rules as well. The Democratic Party delegates are not given in a “winner take all” manner. They function on more of a proportional basis. Democratic nomination candidates can win some, all or none of the delegates, depending on the amount of votes they received in the primary.

States hold primaries and caucuses in different months- the earliest being the Iowa caucus and New Hampshire primary in January and the latest the New Jersey and Utah primaries in June. A lot of importance is placed on the earliest primaries because they are generally good indicators of a candidate’s success in the future. Many candidates tend to drop out of the race after a couple of primaries if they feel they do not have enough support from the nation. Of course, after all the primaries have happened, it is usually obvious who the nomination from the party is, so each national party convention simply serves as a big celebration and official declaration of presidential and vice-presidential candidacy.

National party conventions usually happen in July or August, after which the nominated candidate and his or her opposition can begin intensely campaigning up until Election Day in November.

So a quick review: Barack Obama is already the nominee for the Democratic Party’s presidential candidate. The other seven or so people I listed a couple paragraphs ago, are all competing for the presidential nomination for the Republican Party. Primaries and caucuses will begin in January and end in June, after which all states will have nominated a candidate. These votes are used to tell the delegates which candidate to vote for at the national party convention. Although it is usually obvious before the fact, presidential candidates are announced at national party conventions over the summer, and the two official candidates have just a few months to finish campaigning before America votes.

And that’s all there is to it, folks! Thank you for bearing with me. I know that was a lot of information to process, but I promise next time we’ll get to the good stuff. So get excited!