16.

1. How candidates are selected

a. Caucus
i. Private meets of party leaders. People no say in selection of candidates
b. Nomination convention
i. Official pub meeting of party to choose candidates for office
ii. Bosses- powerful party leaders chose delegates and controlled conventions
c. Primary election
i. Direct primary- party members select people to run in the general election
(most common)
ii. Closed primary- only member of political party can vote
iii. Open primary- all voters may participate even if no belong to party but only
vote in 1 party’s primary
iv. Plurality- more votes than any other candidate
v. Runoff primary- when no candidate receives majority 2nd primary between 2
candidates with most votes in 1st primary
d. Petition
i. Person announces his or her candidacy and files petitions that a specified
number of voters have signed in order to be placed on the ballot.
2. Presidential nominations
a. Ticket- candidates for president and vice prez
b. Convention delegates- used to make conventions more democratic
c. Presidential primaries today-
i. They may be a delegate selection process or a presidential preference poll or
both
ii. Either the candidate who wins the primary gets all states convention delegates
or each candidate gets delegates based on how mny popular votes receive in
primary
iii. Delegates selected on basis of popular vote may be required to support certain
candidate, or may be uncommitted
d. Proportional representation- state delegates must represent candidates in
proportion to popular vote each receives in the primary once a certain threshold is
reached.
3. National convention
a. Preconvention planning
b. Thousands of delegates assemble conventional city
c. The rules committee- each parties RC governs the way its convention is run.
Delegates must approve any proposed changes in the rules of the last convention.
d. Credential committee- must approve delegations from each state
e. Platform- statement of principle and beliefs
f. Planks- individual parts of platform (may divide delegates)
g. Vice president nomination- normally last day convention