Supreme Court Clarifies Rules for Electoral College: States May Restrict Faithless Electors

https://crsreports.congress.gov/product/pdf/LSB/LSB10515

Supreme Court held that states may punish or replace presidential electors who refuse to cast their ballots for the candidate chosen by all voters of that state. Pretty much saying that it is a law that electors need to provide all votes to keep the election fair/just. Furthermore, in Chiafalo vs. Washington, it states  that Washington could impose a fine against electors who violate their pledge to support the candidate chosen in the states popular vote.

General Election: 1992 Election and the Electoral College

1992 election: https://www.britannica.com/event/United-States-presidential-election-of-1992

This article gives a great overview of the 1992 election and emphasizes several important points we’ve covered in class.  Bill Clinton (Democrat) defeated George HW Bush (Republican incumbent), as well as Ross Perot (third party independent candidate).  While Clinton won the electoral college fairly handily (370 electors against 168 for Bush and 0 for Perot), this election was notable for the popularity of third-party candidate Ross Perot.  Despite clearly winning a majority of electors, Clinton only won 43% of the popular vote (compared to Bush’s 37.4% and Perot’s 18.9%).  Some may argue these election results reinforce support for the electoral college – in the event a Presidential candidate only garners a plurality of the popular vote (and not a majority), the electoral college provides a method of measurement that lends a majority of support to a candidate.  While this election method may reinforce a two-party system, and prevent third-party candidates from having a viable chance at winning the Presidency, there may be value in maintaining a system that prevents a candidate from winning election based on a mere plurality of the popular electorate.

2020 Democratic Nomination Campaign Ads

Below I have linked the 2020 democratic nomination campaign ads. These ads were played before Feb 3rd, 2020 when the Democratic Iowa caucus took place. There were attack ads at Donald Trump as well as ads that supported candidate issue positions such as climate change. The link will take you to C-SPAN which allows you to parse through the transcript of the video and find relevant information on democrat strategies.

\https://www.c-span.org/video/?c4851474/2020-democratic-presidential-campaign-ads

 

Republicans adjust rules for their primaries after 2012 election and this helps Trump

https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/politics/2016-election/primaries/explaining-the-presidential-primary-process/

Republican states catered to the winner take all system and front runners after the delegates appropriated to candidates are not proportional to the amount of votes they received. This was especially seen in later primaries where they rewarded the front runner (Donald Trump) in his success and allocated more delegates to him then what was proportional from the votes he received. This article also gives a breakdown of the states and how they allocate delegates based on votes.

New 15% Rule

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/01/us/15-percent-rule-democratic-delegates.html

 

This article outlines a new rule for the Democratic Party that requires candidates to receive 15% of the vote in congressional districts and state-wide districts in order to be considered by delegates. Further, those who receive at least 15% of the vote receive a proportional amount of the delegates in those state primaries. The main concern for this model is that the nomination process will take much longer.

Electoral College

https://www.cnn.com/2020/12/19/politics/electoral-college-analysis/index.html This article explains why the electoral college is likely to remain in place. It is important to note that if no candidate receives a majority, the election will go to the House of Representatives. Back in the 1968 election, this almost occurred. George Wallace gained 14% of the popular vote and some Southern states however, Nixon still remained on top. At this point in history, many people pushed to change the system in support of the popular vote. There was actually a constitutional amendment to approve the popular vote which was passed by the House in 1969 and supported by Nixon. However, it was shut down by the Senate and this is the last time the U.S. has ever come close to making this shift.

The History of Presidential Debates

https://www.fox10phoenix.com/news/presidential-debates-the-history-of-the-american-political-tradition

This article talks about the history of the presidential debates, how they have evolved, and how they still took place even during a global pandemic. The article goes on to speak about different candidates’ opinions on debates and cites many interesting examples. I would also be interested to see the equivalent article written by CNN to see if two polarizing news sources differ in their explanation of the history of debates.

Invisible Primary

“How to Understand the ‘Invisible Primary'”

This posts features various questions and answers with professor Hans Noel from Georgetown regarding information on the the Invisible Primary.