AP. Government Presidential Election Process

Major types of primaries are open and closed Delegates chosen by proportional representation The first primary is always in New Hampshire California has moved the date of its primary to be more influential The first regional primary was held in the South and dubbed Super Tuesday

Iowa is always the first Each state (and party within the state) sets its own rules for procedures Not secret ballot

The party of the incumbent President holds their convention second Party Platform is approved Delegates vote for Presidential nominee Vice Presidential nominee is approved by the delegates after he/she is selected by the Presidential nominee General Election (between nominees of the various political parties)

Popular Vote is used to select the electors for each individual state Electoral vote is held on the 1st Monday after the 2nd Wednesday in December Each party in each state chooses potential electors before the popular vote The electors of the candidate that wins the popular vote in that state are the ones who go to the state capitol to vote Winner-take-all is used to select electors in all states except Maine and Nebraska which both use District Plan Each state's electoral vote equals the # of Representatives + # of Senators

435 + 100 + 3 (DC: 23rd Amendment) = 538 California= 53 + 2 = 55 Need a majority (270) to win The votes are counted by the president of the Senate (VP of US) before a joint session of Congress on January 6 Each elector now has one vote for President and one vote for Vice President

House of Representatives chooses the President from the top three electoral vote getters The Senate chooses the Vice President from the top two electoral vote getters Each state, regardless of size, has one vote

1. Electors then had two votes for President. The candidate who came in first was chosen as President and the one who came in second was Vice President.

Jefferson and Burr were both Democratic-Republicans and all the D-R electors voted for their party's candidate so each got 73 votes. 36 ballots were required in the House of Representatives to finally elect Jefferson as President 12th Amendment was passed as a result. Each elector was granted one vote for President and one for Vice President. The number of candidates that would make it to the House if no one received a majority was reduced from five to three.

The election is nicknamed the \"corrupt bargain\" after the alleged deal between Adams and Speaker of the House Henry Clay who was later named by Adams as Secretary of State.

The disputed electoral votes came from four states that each sent in two sets of electoral votes—one set for each candidate. The election is nicknamed the \"stolen election\" because the commission was made up of a majority Republicans and awarded all the disputed votes to the Republican Hayes.

Cleveland won the popular vote but lost the electoral vote due to the winner-take-all problem

Many problems occurred in the popular vote in Florida ranging from the \"butterfly ballot\" to \"hanging chad\" to improperly purged voters.

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Woodrow Wilson beat Charles Evans Hughes because Hughes failed to secure the votes of California

The Democratic vote was split in three among Harry S Truman (D), Henry Wallace (New Progressive on the left), and Strom Thurmond (States' Rights or Dixiecrat on the right). Thomas Dewey (Republican) was the predicted winner, but Truman won after his whistle-stop campaign.

John F. Kennedy beat Richard M. Nixon in one of the closest elections in history. This election shows many of the flaws of the current system: Winner-take-all problem Fraud Effect of an alternative party Faithless elector Election could have been thrown into the House

Richard Nixon beat Hubert Humphrey in another close election that could have been thrown into the House by the candidacy of George Wallace of the American Independent Party who won 46 electoral votes.

Jimmy Carter beat Gerald Ford even though the independent candidacy of Eugene McCarthy threatened the Democratic victory.

Ronald Reagan beat Jimmy Carter in both popular and electoral votes by such a huge margin that Carter conceded before the polls closed in the west, thus decreasing his total popular vote and the votes for other Democrats. Prior to the election, there was some fear among Reagan supporters that Carter would win the popular vote while Reagan won the electoral vote so letters were sent to Reagan electors reminding them of their obligation to vote for Reagan regardless of the overall popular vote. Additionally, there was a relatively popular alternative candidate—former Republican John Anderson.

George W. Bush was not declared the winner until the day after the popular vote election. There was controversy over the vote in Ohio—a state whose 20 electoral votes could have given the election to John Kerry—although not as much as in Florida in 2000.

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The winner of the popular vote wins the presidency.

Each candidate receives the same portion of the electoral vote of a state as the popular vote he/she received in that state.

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The electoral vote would proceed as always, but the winner of the popular vote in the nation would receive an additional bloc of electoral votes equal to two times the number of states + DC.

The office of elector would be eliminated but everything else would stay the same.

This plan would keep the Electoral College, but require only a plurality to win.