US DEMOCRACY AND PARTICIPATION
5.1 Electoral systems in the USA
While the Founding Fathers wanted the public to have control over their government, they feared
that the uneducated masses would not make the right decisions. In the original constitution they
ensured that only the House of Representatives was directly elected by the people, with Senators
being appointed by the state government. They created a presidential election in which they
inserted a safety mechanism: voters would choose a small group of people who would decide who
the president is.
This is the system that is still in existence today. In the 1960s, another election was added (primaries
and caucuses) in which the public select which candidate will represent a party at elections. This
system is not part of the constitution but has been created by internal party rules. This means that
the presidential elections, which do so much to determine the fate of America and the world, are –
compared to most modern democracies – long and controversial.
THE INVISIBLE PRIMARY
Invisible primaries happen before primary voting when candidates campaign to establish themselves
as viable candidates to win the primary race. Potential primary candidates try to gather support, gain
recognition, raise funds, and establish a core staff. This usually starts well before they announce
their candidacy.
The invisible primary season increases in intensity as the first primary vote, which takes place in
Iowa, gets closer. Candidates with high levels of funding and strong public support are likely to be
viewed as potential winners, thus attracting more funding and support. This season usually leads to
some candidates dropping out because they lack funding or public support. While no actual voting
takes place, contestants try to establish themselves as the lead candidate in a specific faction,
gaining loyalty from a key set of voters. Announcing a presidential bid early can enable the candidate
to ‘capture’ the support of a party faction before another candidate has even declared. For the 2016
elections Senator Ted Cruz was the first Republican candidate to declare, nine months before the
first primary voting and a year and a half before the presidential election. Cruz gave a speech
appealing to social conservative voters at an evangelical college and was subsequently able to
maintain this support, leaving previously popular evangelical Republicans (such as Santorum) with
limited backing.
Invisible primaries can have a major effect on a candidate’s chances of success. As well as being a
key period of fundraising, invisible primaries are when candidates can spend a great deal of money,
mainly on publicity campaigns, adding to the financial burden of running for the presidency. The
process is also significant because it provides an opportunity for lesser-known candidates to
establish themselves as realistic challengers to perceived frontrunners. This was the case with Barack
Obama in 2007, who used solid performances in pre-voting debates to establish himself as the main
rival to Hillary Clinton. Clinton ‘won’ the invisible primaries, thanks to higher fundraising and greater
popularity, but Obama’s ability to get close to her put him in a position to win the nomination.
Sanders’s invisible primary performance in 2015 helped him to gain funding and support, allowing
him to run a fairly close primary race against Clinton.
, PRIMARIES AND CAUCUSES - In the first stage of voting, candidates from the same party compete in
a public vote. The whole process is often referred to as ‘primaries’, even though some states use
primary voting and some use caucus voting. There are two primaries: one Democrat and one
Republican.
A primary is an election to choose each party’s candidate to run in the presidential election.
People voting can just cast a ballot then leave.
A caucus is a meeting to choose a party’s candidate for the presidential election. There is a
discussion, then the group decides on the nomination. Caucuses are held in large states which
are thinly populated.
Rather than having a national contest, there are separate contests for each state. This is a public
vote, but each voter can only vote in one party’s primary. Candidates compete in a state to win
delegates. Each state is given a number of delegates that broadly reflects its population. Delegates
are party activists who agree to go to a party convention to vote for a specific candidate, according
to how the voters in that state have voted. In 2016 in the Republican Party primaries, South Carolina
had 50 delegates. Donald Trump received 33 per cent of the vote, beating Rubio (22 per cent), Cruz
(22 per cent) and Bush (8 per cent). In doing so, Trump got 100 per cent of South Carolina’s
delegates. As a result, all 50 delegates then pledged to vote for Trump when they attended a
national meeting of delegates from all states. This meeting is known as the ‘national party
convention’.
Voters cast a secret ballot into a ballot box, making a single choice in the primary. For either political
party, the candidate with 50 per cent or more of all delegates becomes the official presidential
candidate. Different parties elect different totals over the whole campaign. To win in 2016, a
Democrat required 2383 and a Republican 1237 delegates. In theory the delegates make the
decision at the party convention at the end of the process. In practice, one person usually has more
than 50 per cent, so therefore the winner is known before the convention.
Each state controls how its own primary or caucus is run. States decide when primaries are held in
between January and June. Super Tuesday is a day in February or March when many states hold
their primary or caucus. In 2016 the Iowa caucus was the first primary in the Republican and
Democrat primaries.
Different states and different parties have different rules regarding who can vote and how delegates
are apportioned.
• Republican primaries traditionally used a ‘winner takes all’ system (the candidate with the
most votes gets all of the state’s delegates). Now some states use a proportional system (if a
candidate gets 20 per cent of the vote, they get 20 per cent of the delegates).
In proportional primaries, candidates are awarded delegates in proportion to their votes
won. This is done in most Democrat primaries.
Type of primary - States decide the type of primary election that takes place and the voting rules
In closed primaries, only registered Republicans can vote in the Republican primary and
registered Democrats can vote in the Democratic primary. Voters must tick a box when they
