This publication provides an introductory overview of the American electoral process for people who are not familiar with U.S. election practices and traditions. For “U.S. Elections 2004,” we have asked seven experts, mostly political scientists, to explain significant aspects of the upcoming elections to international audiences who may have different ways of electing their government.

John F. Bibby begins the discussion by reviewing the role of political parties in the American system. Parties are not written into the U.S. Constitution (1789), but they have evolved since their origins in the early 1800s into a bedrock feature of U.S. democracy. Some have suggested that much of the stability of American government rests on the fact that two parties have been dominant for more than a century.

Next, Stephen J. Wayne explicates the long presidential campaign, in particular the nomination process. Again, several vital features of the American system – party nominating conventions and primary elections – are not provided for in the Constitution, but have resulted from an historical evolution rooted in the early years of the American republic. Michael W. Traugott then describes in detail how electoral institutions ensure fairness, discussing the procedures for registering voters, counting votes, and structuring a ballot.

Speaking several months before the first presidential nominating caucus (in January 2004), Mann concentrates on what to watch for as the upcoming election unfolds. John H. Aldrich reminds us that more than a presidential election occurs in 2004. All 435 seats in the House of Representatives and one-third of the 100 Senate seats will be in play as well. Governors, mayors, and state legislatures will be elected across America.

Adding interest to the election is the fact that in the American system it is possible for one party to win the White House while another gains control of one or both houses of Congress. Unlike in parliamentary systems, the executive and legislature are selected independently of each other in the United States.

Finally, we consider two aspects of the process that have become crucial in modern elections: public-opinion polling and campaign-finance laws. Pollster John Zogby makes the case that opinion polls can be useful to candidates in defining issues that are important to voters, but they can be misused or misinterpreted when attempting to predict outcomes.

Joseph E. Cantor then provides a concise explanation of the complex laws regulating contributions and expenditures in U.S. elections – $607 million was spent on the presidential election alone in 2000. Regulation of political campaigns involves a perceived conflict between two core values for Americans: freedom of speech, as guaranteed in the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, and ensuring a fair and open playing field for all candidates.

As several of our authors suggest, the hallmark of the American election system over several centuries has been its fundamental stability, a stability that also responds to the need for modernization and change. We hope that as the events of the 2004 elections play out in coming months, readers worldwide will find this booklet useful as a guide to both the historical context and the unique features of the current campaign.

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EXECUTIVE EDITOR: GEORGE CLACK
EDITOR: PAUL MALAMUD
ART DIRECTOR/ DESIGNER: THADDEUS A. MIKSINSKI, JR.
PHOTO EDITOR: JOANN STERN
REFERENCE SPECIALISTS: LORNA DODT, ANITA GREEN

Cover: For over a hundred years, campaign buttons have adorned the lapels of American voters, a testament to the vitality of the presidential election spectacle.

Election Glossary:

Caucus – A meeting, in particular a meeting of people whose goal is political or organizational change. In American presidential politics, the word has come to mean a gathering of each party’s local political activists during the presidential nomination process. In a “layered” caucus system, local party activists, working at the precinct level, select delegates to county meetings, who in turn select delegates to state meetings. These state-level conventions select delegates to their party’s national nominating convention.

The purpose of the caucus system is to indicate  through delegate choice, which presidential candidate is preferred by each state party’s members. Its effect is to democratize presidential nominations, since candidate preferences are essentially determined at the precinct level, at the beginning of the process.

Coattails – An allusion to the rear panels (“tails”) of a gentleman’s frock coat. In American politics, it refers to the ability of a popular officeholder or candidate for office, on the strength of his or her own popularity, to increase the chances for victory of other candidates of the same political party. This candidate is said to carry others to victory “on his coattails.”

Conservative – Any shade of political opinion from moderately right-of-center to firmly right-of-center. Of the two major parties in the United States, the Republican Party is generally considered to be the more conservative. Political conservatives in the United States usually support free-market economic principles and low taxes, and distrust federal, as opposed to state and local, government power.

Convention bounce – An increase in a presidential candidate’s popularity, as indicated by public opinion polls, in the days immediately following his or her nomination for office at the Republican or Democratic national convention.

Debate – A discussion involving two or more opposing sides of an issue. In American politics in recent years, debates have come to be associated with televised programs at which all candidates for the presidency or the vice presidency present their own and their party’s views in response to questions from the media or members of the audience. Debates may also be held via radio or at a meeting place for community members, and they may be held for elective office at all levels of government.

Divided government – A term that generally refers to a situation where the president is a member of one political party and at least one chamber of Congress (either the Senate or the House of Representatives) is controlled by the opposite party. This situation can also exist at the state level, with one party controlling the governorship, and another controlling the state legislature. Divided government frequently occurs in the U.S. political system. Its historical impact has been to discourage radical change and to motivate politicians of both parties to compromise on proposed legislation.

Electoral College – When American voters go to the polls to vote for president, many believe that they are participating in a direct election of the president. Technically, this is not the case, due to the existence of the electoral college, a constitutional relic of the 18th century. The electoral college is the name given a group of “electors” who are nominated by party members within the states. On election day, these electors, pledged to one or another candidate, are popularly elected. In December, following the presidential vote, the electors meet in their respective state capitals and cast ballots for president and vice president. To be elected, a president requires 270 electoral votes.

Federal Election Commission (FEC) – An independent regulatory agency charged with administering and enforcing federal campaign finance law. The FEC was established by the 1974 amendment of the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971.

Front-loading – The practice of scheduling state party caucuses and state primary elections earlier and earlier in advance of the general election. By moving their primaries to early dates, states hope to lend decisive momentum to one or two presidential candidates and thus have a significant influence on each party’s nomination.

Front-runner – A candidate in any election or nomination process who is considered to be the most popular or likely to win.

Gender gap – In recent elections, American women have tended to vote in patterns different from those of men, often preferring Democratic to Republican candidates or candidates on the more liberal side of the political spectrum. The press has dubbed this phenomenon the “gender gap.”

Hard money/soft money – Terms used to differentiate between campaign funding that is and is not regulated by federal campaign finance law. Hard money is regulated by law and can be used to influence the outcome of federal elections – that is, to advocate the election of specific candidates.

Soft money is not regulated by law and can be spent only on activities that do not affect the election of candidates for national office – that is, for such things as voter registration drives, partybuilding activities, and administrative costs, and to help state and local candidates.

Horse race – Used as a metaphor for an election campaign, “horse race” conveys the feeling of excitement that people experience when watching a sporting event. The term also refers to media coverage of campaigns, which frequently emphasizes the candidates’ standings in public opinion polls – as if they were horses in a race — instead of the candidates’ stands on the issues.

Liberal – In the U.S. political spectrum, “liberals” are said to be slightly left-of-center or somewhat left-of-center. Of the two main political parties, the Democrats are thought to be more liberal, as the term is currently defined. “Political” liberals tend to favor greater federal power to remedy perceived social inequities; in the cultural sphere, liberals tend to support feminism, minority rights, and emphasis on freedoms of personal behavior.

Midterm election – An election for seats in the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives that occurs during a presidential term of office – that is, two years into the four-year presidential term. The results are sometimes interpreted as a popular referendum on that president’s performance for the first two years of his term. Midterm elections determine some members of the U.S. Senate and all members of the House of Representatives, as well as many state and local officials.

Negative ads – Advertisements that try to persuade voters to vote for one candidate by making the opponent look bad, by attacking either the opponent’s character or record on the issues.

Platform – In the context of U.S. presidential politics, this term refers to a political party’s formal written statement of its principles and goals, put together and issued during the presidential nomination process. In recent years, the party platforms have become less important as television has focused more on each candidate’s personality and perceived leadership ability.

Plurality rule – A method of identifying the winning candidate in an election. A plurality of votes is the total vote received by a candidate greater than that received by any opponent but often less than a 50 percent majority of the vote. That is, if one candidate receives 30 percent of the votes, a second candidate also receives 30 percent, and a third receives 40 percent, the third candidate has a plurality of the votes and wins the election.

Primary election – An electoral contest held to choose a political party’s candidate for a particular public office. Primaries may be held at all levels of government, including local contests for mayor, district races for the U.S. House of Representatives, statewide elections for governor or U.S. senator, and president of the United States. In “closed” primaries, only registered members of a party may vote. In “open” primaries, voters of one party (called “cross-over” voters) may vote in another party’s primary.

Primaries for presidential candidates are held at the state level to indicate who the people of that state prefer to be the parties’ candidates. Depending on state law, voters cast ballots directly for the presidential candidate they prefer or for delegates who are “pledged” to support that presidential candidate at convention time. State primary elections, if early enough in the political season, can occasionally stop leading presidential candidates in their tracks and create a surge of support for a lesser-known candidate. Note that primaries are an alternative to the “caucus” system of candidate selection.

Protest vote - A vote for a third- or minor-party candidate made without much hope of electing that candidate but intended to indicate displeasure with the candidates of the two major political parties.

Redistricting – The process of redrawing the geographic boundaries of congressional districts, the electoral districts within states from which members of the House of Representatives are elected. Both Democrats and Republicans at the state level compete to get hold of the legal and political mechanisms of redistricting – usually by controlling the state legislature. By doing so, they can redraw boundaries of congressional districts in ways that will lend an electoral advantage to their own party.

Regionalization – The 50 United States are unofficially grouped into approximately six regions in which states share certain geographic and cultural traits with each other. During the presidential primary season, “regionalization” refers to the practice of states’ joining with other states in their region to maximize the effect of the region on the electoral process, often by holding their primary elections on the same day.

Single-member district – The current arrangement for electing national and state legislators in the United States in which one candidate is elected in each legislative district; the winner is the candidate with the most votes. The single-member system allows only one party to win in any given district. This is directly opposite to the proportional system, in which much larger districts are used and several members are elected at one time based on the proportion of votes their parties receive.

Sound bite – A brief, very quotable remark by a candidate for office that is repeated on radio and television news programs.

Spin doctor/spin – A media adviser or political consultant employed by a campaign to ensure that the candidate receives the best possible publicity in any given situation. For example, after a debate between the presidential candidates, each candidate’s “spin doctors” will seek out journalists so they can point out their candidate’s strengths in the debate and try to convince the press, and by extension the public, that their candidate “won” the debate. When these media advisers practice their craft, they are said to be “spinning” or putting “spin” on a situation or event.

Third party – In the United States, any political party that is not one of the two parties that have dominated U.S. politics in the 20th century: the Republican Party and the Democratic Party.

Ticket splitting – Voting for candidates of different political parties in the same election – say, voting for a Democrat for president and a Republican for senator. Because ticket splitters do not vote for all of one party’s candidates, they are said to “split” their votes.

Town meeting – An informal gathering of an officeholder or candidate for office with a group of people, often local, where the atmosphere is egalitarian and informal, and where members of the audience can pose questions directly to the officeholder or candidate.

Tracking survey – A type of publicopinion poll that allows candidates to follow, or “track,” voters’ sentiments over the course of a campaign. For the initial survey, the pollster interviews the same number of voters on three consecutive nights – for example, 400 voters a night, for a total sample of 1,200 people. On the fourth night, the pollster interviews 400 more voters, adds their responses to the poll data, and drops the responses from the first night. Continuing in this way, the sample rolls along at a constant 1,200 responses drawn from the previous three nights. Over time, the campaign can analyze the data from the entire survey and observe the effect of certain events on voters’ attitudes.

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