Presentation Pro
Magruder’s
American Government
CHAPTER 7
The Electoral Process
© 2001 by Prentice Hall, Inc.
SECTION 2
Elections
• How does the administration of elections in
the United States make democracy work?
• What role do precincts and polling places
play in the election process?
• In what ways can voters cast their ballots?
• What role do voting machines and other
innovations play in the election process?
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Chapter 7, Section 2
The Administration of Elections
• Elections are primarily regulated by State
law.
•
There are more than 500,000 people in the U.S. that
hold an elective office
•
There are more than 89,000 units of government at
the State and local levels
• But there are some overreaching federal
regulations.
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Chapter 7, Section 2
The Administration of Elections
Congress has the power to:
• Set the time, place, and manner of congressional
and presidential elections.
• Congress has chosen the first Tuesday after the
first Monday in November of every even-numbered
year for congressional elections, with the
presidential election being held the same day every
fourth year.
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Chapter 7, Section 2
The Administration of Elections
In 2002, The U.S. Congress passed the Help America
Vote Act in response to the voting issues of the 2000
election.
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Chapter 7, Section 2
The Administration of Elections
The Help America Vote Act requires States to:
• Replace all lever-operated and punch-card
voting devices by 2006
• Most states failed to meet this requirement
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Chapter 7, Section 2
The Administration of Elections
The Help America Vote Act requires States to:
• Upgrade their administration of elections
• Better training of local elections officials
and the more than 2 million (mostly lowpaid or volunteers) who work in precinct
poling places on election day
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Chapter 7, Section 2
The Administration of Elections
The Help America Vote Act requires States to:
• Centralize and computerize their voter registration
systems
• This is meant to:
•
•
Facilitate voter identification of qualified voters on
election day
Minimize voter fraud
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Chapter 7, Section 2
The Administration of Elections
The Help America Vote Act requires States to:
• Provide for Provisional Voting
• This is meant to:
•
•
Allow a person whose eligibility to vote has been
questioned to actually vote
Their vote will be counted if it is decided later that
they were actually allowed to vote
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Chapter 7, Section 2
The Administration of Elections
States determine:
• The details of the election of thousands of State and local
officials.
Most States provide:
• for absentee voting
• for voters who are unable to get to their regular polling
places on election day.
Some States within the last few years have started to allow
voting a few days before election day to increase voter
participation.
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Chapter 7, Section 2
The Coattail Effect
• The Coattail Effects refers to a strong
candidate at the top of the ballot which
attracts voters to other candidates on the
party’s ticket.
•
Lesser-known office seekers thus “ride the coattails” of
the more popular person
• The Reverse Coattail Effect can occur too
•
Less popular candidates can affect elections negatively
down the ballot
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Chapter 7, Section 2
Precincts and Polling Places
Precincts
•
•
•
A precinct is a voting
district.
Precincts are the
smallest geographic
units used to carry out
elections.
A precinct election board
supervises the voting
process in each precinct.
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Polling Places
•
•
A polling place is where
the voters who live in a
precinct go to vote.
It is located in or near
each precinct. Polling
places are supposed to
be located conveniently
for voters.
Chapter 7, Section 2
Casting the Ballot
History of the Ballot
•
•
•
Voting was initially done orally. It was considered “manly”
to speak out your vote without fear of reprisal.
Paper ballots began to be used in the mid-1800s. At first,
people provided their own ballots. Then, political machines
began to take advantage of the flexibility of the process to
intimidate, buy, or manufacture votes.
In the late 1800s, ballot reforms cleaned up ballot fraud by
supplying standardized, accurate ballots and mandating
that voting be secret.
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Chapter 7, Section 2
Casting the Ballot
The Australian Ballot
• Devised in Australia in 1856 – 4 main
features
• Provided at public expense
• Lists the names of all candidates in an
election
• Handed out only at the polls
• Can be marked in secret
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Chapter 7, Section 2
Casting the Ballot
•
Sample Ballots
In some states, sample ballots are mailed to
voters in advance of the election
•
Other states post them on the internet or have them
published in newspapers
•
These ballots can’t be cast, but they help voters to
prepare
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Chapter 7, Section 2
Casting the Ballot
•
Bed-sheet Ballots
Bed-sheet ballots refer to the really long ballots
that list so many offices, candidates, and ballot
measures that it causes ballot fatigue
• Opponents argue that there is little reason to
elect people to be clerks, coroners, surveyors,
and engineers
• They argue that we should only elect policy
makers
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Chapter 7, Section 2
Office-Group and Party-Column Ballots
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Chapter 7, Section 2
Voting Machines and Innovations
•
•
•
Electronic vote counting
has been in use since
the 1960s. Punch-card
ballots are often used to
cast votes.
Vote-by-mail elections
have come into use in
recent years.
Online voting is a trend
that may be encountered
in the near future.
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Chapter 7, Section 2
Section 2 Review
1. Elections are held on
(a) the first Wednesday after Halloween.
(b) the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November.
(c) the second Thursday after the first Monday in March.
(d) the first Monday in December.
2. The Office-Group Ballot encourages
(a) voter fraud.
(b) split-ticket voting.
(c) voter dissatisfaction.
(d) the Democratic Party.
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Chapter 7, Section 2