Electoral Systems

• Announcement/invisible primary 


  Usually 12-18 months before election day. Candidates from the same party will begin campaigns to become presidential nominee e.g. Biden, Sanders and Warren
• Primaries and Caucuses 


  Candidates from same parties compete against each other in a public vote to decide who will be party's presidential candidate
• National Party Conventions


  Confirm each party's nominee for president and vice president and agree on a party platform. Candidate is almost decided by time of convention due to front-loading of primaries (earlier in calendar) and can rally support
• The Campaign


  Announced candidate from each party campaigns for presidency
• Election Day


  On the Tuesday following the first Monday in November. Voters are not directly electing president. They are nominating electors from their state to the electoral college
• Electoral College


  Each state is given a certain amount of electoral college votes based on representatives and senators, e.g. Florida has 30, but Wyoming has 3. All states aside from Maine and Nebraska have a winner takes all approach
• Inauguration


  On the 20th of January in the following year when the president is sworn in and officially takes on the role
• Examples


  2016 US election: Trump gained 63 million votes (43%) and Clinton gained 66 million (48%). Trump won because he got 30 states totalling to 306 electoral college votes, Clinton won 20 with 232 votes
• Faithless Electors


  Once electoral college votes have been counted, states will send electors to Washington DC who will cast their votes on behalf of their state. Sometimes electors will vote in a different way leading to fines, penalties in only 33 states (only 14 revoke the vote). There have been 165 instances of faithlessness as of 2020
• Campaign Finance


  In 2008, the total spending was $8 per vote cast. This increased to $20 in 2012
• Political Action Committee (PAC)


  Raise hard money to elect or defeat a specific candidate but are limited to $5000 per candidate per election
• Super PACs


  Raise unlimited money for political activities and can support or oppose a candidate but cannot organise this with that person's campaign organisation. They've brought over $300 million
• Legislation on Finance

  • 1979 Federal Election Campaign Act: placed limits on campaign contributions
  • Buckley v Valeo: SC ruled congress couldn't limit how much candidates spend on their campaigns as it violated 1st amendment rights. Also argued campaign finance laws can only prohibit expressly advocated adverts
  • 2002 Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act: banned soft money (contributions made by political parties outside limits of federal election law)
  • 2010 Citizens United v FEC: SC ruling led to super PACs and unlimited spending