LMA, anul II, EN-FR Brie Laura-Mihaela

US Elections
Elections

An election is the democratic process of selecting one person from among a group of
candidates to fill a political office or other position of responsibility. The word "election"
comes from the Latin root meaning "to choose." The election process is accomplished by
voting. The people who are qualified to vote are called the electorate. The electorate may vote
on issues as well as for candidates. For example, they may vote on tax measures or changes in
the law.

Elections may be decided (won) in a variety of ways. In many elections the winning candidate
must win by a plurality--that is, receive more votes than any other candidate. In other elections
a winning candidate must win by a majority--that is, receive more than half the total number
of votes cast.

Elections may be held to select officers at any level of government. In the United States, for
example, mayors, county supervisors, some judges and sheriffs, members of the state
legislatures, members of the U.S. Congress, and the president and vice president of the United
States are elected to office. However, in some countries with parliamentary forms of
government, such as the United Kingdom, typically only the members of the county and
national legislatures are elected.

The Electoral Process in the United States

The national government establishes federal election requirements, and many of the states
generally adopt the same rules and practices to reduce costs and avoid the complexity of
having two different systems. For example, most states and cities hold their elections the same
day as federal elections.

The electoral process begins with the selection of candidates and ends with the casting of
votes on Election Day.

Selecting Candidates

Political parties, which are made up of groups of voters who share similar political views, are
an important feature of the American political system. The two major parties--the Democratic
Party and the Republican Party--nominate most of the candidates who run for public office in

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the United States. There are also minor parties, or third parties, which often promote a single
cause or issue.

In most elections, each major party selects a candidate and supports him or her with money,
advice, and publicity. For the major federal and state offices, including U.S. president, senator,
representative, and governor, candidates appear on the ballot identified with a particular party.
However, for judges and for many local government offices, candidates often run without any
party identification. These are known as nonpartisan races.

Qualifications Necessary to Run for Office

Although they need not belong to a political party, candidates must meet certain minimum
requirements to run for various offices. For example, according to the U.S. Constitution, to
serve in the U.S. House of Representatives a candidate must have been a U.S. citizen for at
least seven years, be a resident of the state (and usually the district) he or she will represent,
and be at least 25 years old. To serve in the U.S. Senate, a candidate must have been a U.S.
citizen for at least nine years, be a resident of the state he or she will represent, and be at least
30 years old. To become president of the United States, a candidate must have lived in the
country for at least 14 years, be a natural-born U.S. citizen, and be at least 35 years old.

Nominating Procedures

A variety of nominating procedures are used to select candidates in the United States. Usually,
any person who wants to run for an elective office must show that he or she has a minimum
amount of public support. A potential candidate might have to collect a minimum number of
signatures of registered voters to qualify to appear on the ballot.

For many elections (and that includes the most important national and state elections), the
candidates from one party compete with each other in a primary election to determine who
will represent the party. Primaries are usually held a few months before the general election.

Primary elections fall into two main categories: In a closed primary, only voters registered
with the party can vote in that party's primary. More common is the open primary, in which
voters can participate even if they are not registered with that party.

For some elected positions, candidates are chosen by party caucuses 1. In the case of
presidential nominations, states send representatives called delegates to each party's

1
In the US, a meeting held to decide which candidate a political group will support in an election.

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presidential convention. At the convention, the delegates agree on a final candidate and
publicly demonstrate their support for that candidate.

Types of Elections

The most important election in the United States is the general election, when Americans vote
for the president and vice president and members of Congress. It takes place on Election Day
(the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November), which in some states is a holiday. State
and local elections are also usually held that day.

Usually, if a candidate receives a majority of the votes in the general election, he or she is
declared the winner. However, in a race where there may be three or more strong candidates, it
is possible that no one will receive a majority of votes. In such a situation, a runoff election
may be held several weeks later. The two candidates who received the most votes run against
each other again, and the candidate who receives the majority of the votes is declared the
winner.

There are several types of elections in addition to primary, general, and runoff elections.
Special elections may be held to fill an office whose occupant has died, resigned, or been
recalled. An issues election, called a referendum, may be held to decide whether to accept or
reject a piece of legislation. A recall election may be held to decide whether an office holder
should be removed from office. If the recall election succeeds in removing the elected official,
the office may be filled by appointment by the president or governor or by a special election.

Frequency of General Elections

Under the American political system, general elections are held in early November. The choice
of that time of year has been made in the days when America was largely an agricultural
society and farmers were unable to take time to vote until the fall, after the harvests had been
gathered.

In the United States, presidential elections are held every four years and congressional
elections are held every two years (in even-numbered years). In congressional elections the
entire House of Representatives and one-third of the United States Senate are elected.

There are state elections for governors and other statewide officers. The term of an American
governor varies with the individual state--either two or four years. The state legislatures must
also be elected at regular intervals. In addition, there are county, city, and even school-board

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elections, which are of vital interest to taxpayers and parents living in school districts. Local
elections are held at various times during the year. This round of federal, state, and local
elections goes on in every community throughout the nation. No war or disaster has ever
halted this vital function of the American electorate.

A bit of history

During the period between 1789 and 2004, the US has had different presidents, from different
parties, some of them having won more than once. From the beginning, the Federalists had the
power for 11 years, handing it over to the Democrat-Republicans for the next 24 years. After
that, the presidency of the US has been switched between the Democrats (their Party was
founded in 1792; a modern one was created in 1828) and the Republicans (their Party was
founded in 1854), which became the main political parties in the US.

Complete list of presidents between 1789 an 2004:

[D] = Democrat
[D-LR] = Democrat-Liberal Republican
[D-P] = Democrat-Populist
[D-R] = Democrat-Republican
[F] = Federalist
[N-R] = National-Republican
[P] = Progressive
[R] = Republican
[W] = Whig

1789, 1792 G. Washington [F]

1796 John Adams [F]
1800, 1804 Thomas Jefferson [D-R]
1808, 1812 James Madison [D-R]
1816, 1820 James Monroe [D-R]
1824 John Quincy Adams [Coalition]
1828, 1832 Andrew Jackson [D]
1836 Martin Van Buren [D]
1840 William Henry Harrison [W]
1844 James K. Polk [D]
1848 Zachary Taylor [W]
1852 Franklin Pierce [D]
1856 James Buchanan [D]
1860, 1864 Abraham Lincoln [R]
1868, 1872 Ulysses S. Grant [R]
1876 Rutherford B. Hayes [R]
1880 James Garfield [R]
1884 Grover Cleveland [D]
1888 Benjamin Harrison [R]
1892 Grover Cleveland [D]
1896, 1900 William McKinley [R]
1904 Theodore Roosevelt [R]
1908 William H. Taft [R]
1912, 1916 Woodrow Wilson [D]
1920 Warren G. Harding [R]
1924 Calvin Coolidge [R]

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1928 Herbert C. Hoover [R]

1932, 1936, 1940, 1944 Franklin D. Roosevelt [D]
1948 Harry S. Truman [D]
1952, 1956 Dwight D. Eisenhower [R]
1960 John F. Kennedy [D]
1964 Lyndon B. Johnson [D]
1968, 1972 Richard M. Nixon [R]
1976 Jimmy Carter [D]
1980, 1984 Ronald Reagan [R]
1988 George Bush [R]
1992, 1996 William J. Clinton [D]
2000 George W. Bush [R]
2004 George W. Bush [R]

2008 US Elections

General information. The United States presidential election of 2008, scheduled for Tuesday,
November 4, will be the 56th consecutive quadrennial United States presidential election and
will select the President and the Vice President of the United States. The two major parties'
candidates have been officially chosen: John McCain, the senior United States Senator from
Arizona, for the Republican Party and Barack Obama, the junior United States Senator from
Illinois, for the Democratic Party.

The Libertarian Party has nominated former congressman Bob Barr, and the Constitution Party
has nominated pastor and radio talk show host Chuck Baldwin. Cynthia McKinney is leading
the Green Party's primaries. Ralph Nader declined to seek the Green Party nomination and was
running as an independent candidate.

The election will coincide with the 2008 Senate elections in thirty-three states, House of
Representatives elections in all states, and gubernatorial elections in eleven states, as well as
various state referendums and local elections.

As in the 2004 presidential election, the allocation of electoral votes to each state will be based
partially on the 2000 Census2. The president-elect and vice president-elect are scheduled to be
inaugurated on January 20, 2009.

2
Also known as the Twenty-Second United States Census. The population is enumerated every ten years and
the results are used to allocate Congressional Seats (congressional apportionment), electoral votes and
government program funding.

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List of Candidates for the 2008 Elections:

Presidential candidate Party

Gene Amondson Prohibition
Chuck Baldwin Constitution
Bob Barr Libertarian
Róger Calero Socialist Workers
Gloria La Riva Socialism & Liberation
John McCain (nominee) Republican
Brian Moore Socialist
Ralph Nader Independent
Barack Obama (nominee) Democratic
TBD Green

The two major candidates. General election matchups find John McCain trailing the
Democratic candidates. Obama holds a slight 47%-44% over McCain, which is narrower than
his six-point advantage in both April and March.

Looking ahead to the fall election, a critical question is how independent voters will break,
and the evidence so far is decidedly mixed. In an Obama-McCain matchup, independent
voters today are evenly divided, with 44% favoring each candidate. A month ago, Obama held
a sizable advantage over McCain among independents. But a month before that - in March -
McCain held a seven-point advantage over Obama.

Solid majorities of both Obama and McCain supporters see their choice as a vote for their
favored candidate and not as a vote against his opponent. Obama receives more positive
support than any Democratic candidate in the past two decades. Fully three-quarters of voters
who back Obama in a matchup against McCain view their vote as being for the Illinois
senator, rather than against his Republican rival. By contrast, on the eve of the 2004 election,
just 43% of John Kerry backers said they were voting for him while 50% were more
motivated by their disapproval of George W. Bush.

Affirmative support for McCain mirrors the support Bush received in his first bid for the
White House in 2000. Fully 64% of McCain voters say their choice is pro-McCain, the same
percentage as characterized their choice as being pro-Bush eight years ago. About one-third of
those who back the Arizona senator say their vote is anti-Obama (32%).

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John McCain. He was born on August 29, 1936, in the Panama Canal Zone. He attended the U.S.
Naval Academy. McCain had a 22-year naval career. He served in Vietnam, where he was a
prisoner of war for more than five years, and received many naval honors for his service. McCain's
wife, Cindy McCain, has been active in many international humanitarian organizations.

John McCain is currently a senator representing Arizona, would be the oldest president of the
United States if elected. He has been serving in the Senate since 1986 and he is known for
championing legislation that reformed elections financing and lobbying laws. McCain was also a
presidential candidate in 2000, but lost the nomination to George W. Bush.

Barack Obama. He was born on August 4, 1961, in Hawaii and has lived in many places,
including Indonesia. Obama attended Columbia University in New York and earned a law
degree at Harvard University in Massachusetts. His wife, Michelle Obama, also worked as a
lawyer and later for the University of Chicago.

Barack Obama, a first-term senator from Illinois, would be the first African-American
president of the United States if elected. He has been serving in the Senate since 2004 and he
introduced bipartisan legislation that allows Americans to learn online how their tax dollars
are spent. He also serves on the Veterans' Affairs Committee, which helps oversee the care of
soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan.

Previously, Obama worked as a community organizer and civil rights attorney in Chicago, and
served for eight years in the Illinois State Senate.

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Impressions of Candidates. The long primary season has taken a toll on voters' views of John
McCain and Barack Obama. For the first time since the campaign began, about the same
proportion expresses an unfavorable opinion of McCain (45%) as a favorable opinion (48%).
And Obama's image, while on balance still positive, has grown increasingly negative over the
past few months; just over half (51%) view him favorably, compared with 59% in late
February. Unfavorable ratings of Obama have risen from 35% to 42% over the same period.

Reasons for Unfavorable Views. Most voters who express unfavorable views of Barack
Obama and John McCain say they dislike the candidates' political beliefs the most, but Obama
is also hurt by voters' personal criticism of him. Just over half of voters who hold negative
opinions of Obama dislike the Democratic candidate's take on issues, but a considerable
minority says his personal attributes are at least partly to blame.

In contrast, opposition to McCain is more uniformly guided by political disagreement - nearly

three-quarters of voters who hold unfavorable views of McCain say his political beliefs are the
reason they do not like him.

White working-class critics of McCain are the most likely to say the negative image they have
of him reflects a personal dislike - more than a quarter of whites with a high school education
or less who express an unfavorable opinion of McCain cite the kind of person he is; other say
both personal attributes and politics are a factor. By comparison, only 9% of white Obama
critics who attended college cite personal reasons, while about six-in-ten say they dislike the
Democratic candidate's political views and 16% say it is both personal and political.

Impressions of Cindy McCain and Michelle Obama. At this point in the presidential
campaign, nearly half of Americans say they have heard nothing at all about Cindy McCain,
John McCain's wife. Barack Obama's wife has been far more visible - about three-quarters
have heard at least a little about Michelle Obama, including about one-in-five who say they
have heard a lot about her.

However, opinions of Michelle Obama and Cindy McCain are divided along racial lines. More
black voters have an unfavorable view of Mrs. McCain than have a favorable view; among
white voters, almost half have a positive opinion of Cindy McCain and just 13% have a
negative view. More than seven-in-ten black voters have a favorable opinion of Michelle
Obama, but just 41% of whites do. And Mrs. Obama's favorable ratings are somewhat lower
among white voters with a high school education or less; 35% in that group have a positive
opinion, compared with 45% of white voters who have attended college.

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Who will win? According to a Poll carried out in May, Barack Obama now runs about even
against the Republican nominee, John McCain. Previously, Obama had led McCain by modest
margins in three surveys conducted since late February.
General Election: McCain vs. Obama

All registered Voters:

McCain 44%
Obama 47%
Among Independents
McCain 44%
Obama 44%
Favorability: All Registered Voters
McCain: Favorable 48%
Unfavorable: 45%
Obama: Favorable: 51%
Unfavorable: 42%

In our opinion, Obama will win the elections. He would be a better president and many
American people are aware of this. McCain rarely talks about his own Vietnam era heroism.
But that story can only remind us of the extraordinary courage and integrity that McCain
showed under the most trying conditions possible. McCain's courage doesn't entitle him to be
President, of course.

When a person claims that he should be elected President of the United States on his foreign
policy knowledge and experience, and doesn’t have a clue about the differences between Shia
and Sunni, three times in two days pushing the definitively false statement that the terrorist
group Al-Qaeda was getting assistance from Iran, even though he was publicly ridiculed for
the same false assertion the day before, it means that he is confused. Confusion is not a quality
for a President.

In addition to this, although many people call him “a liberal”, he is far from being one.
McCain's "maverick" tendencies have long annoyed many Republicans. Apparently, one of
four Republicans rejects McCain. McCain has spent the last four years arguing that Bush
needs to be more aggressive in Iraq and argued for a troop "surge" years before anyone used
the word. He seems to be a person who strongly supports the use of force in political
relationships rather than discussion or other more peaceful solutions.

After 9/11, McCain said to their enemies:

"May God have mercy on you because we won’t."

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Bibliography:

1. http://www.archives.gov/federal-register/electoral-college/votes/index.html#source
2. http://ap.grolier.com/browse?type=pep#elections
3. http://people-press.org/
4. http://www.usconstitution.net/const.html
5. http://en.wikipedia.org/
6. http://uspolitics.america.gov/uspolitics/elections/candidates.html
7. http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/017301.php
8. G. Brown Tindall, and D. E. Shi, America – O istorie narativă, vol. III, Ed.
Enciclopedică, Bucharest, 1996

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