How to Describe the Nomination Process for the President and the Vice President

To win the nomination of the political party a politician must win primaries and caucus delegates.

The nomination process for selecting presidential and vice presidential candidates changed drastically after the 1968 Democratic convention. Before this time, the state delegates at the national party convention would select candidates. The current system relies on caucus and primaries to select delegates, which are pledged to the candidates at the national convention. The entire process can be explained by discussing how the primary and caucus voting systems work along with assignment of delegates for a candidate.

Instructions

1. Explain that a potential candidate must announce he is running for the office of President. The candidate will also select which political party he represents. The two major parties in the United States are Republican and Democrat, although there are more political parties candidates may align themselves with.

2. Describe caucus and primary elections. A caucus is a meeting where voters appear at a location and cast votes for their candidates. If a candidate does not meet minimum thresholds in the vote, she is eliminated and votes are taken again. Voters who had supported an eliminated candidate must select another candidate until one candidate obtains a majority vote. Primary elections are similar to the general election; however, a voter must declare if she is voting in the Republican or Democratic primary. Voters are not allowed to vote in both parties' primaries.

3. Discuss that when a vote is cast, it is not for the candidate but for the delegates in the state to cast their vote for that candidate in the party's national convention. Each state allocates delegates differently at the convention. Examples are winner take all, which allocates all delegates to the winning candidate, and proportional delegation, compared to percentage of the vote. There are also combinations where certain delegates' jurisdiction is winner take all and in other jurisdictions it is proportional. Super delegates, which are political office holders in the party, may vote for the candidate they feel should be President and make up 20 percent of the delegate vote for Democratic candidates.

4. Describe the structure of the delegates for each party. The Democrats had over 4000 delegates in the 2008 Presidential election while the Republicans had over 2000. The number of delegates changes based on party memberships and offices held at state and federal levels by a particular party.

5. Detail that to win the nomination for either of the political parties, one candidate must receive more than half the delegates for his party. The delegates then meet at a national convention to vote for the candidate they have been assigned to.

6. Explain that the vice presidential candidate is not nominated by the delegates but is selected by the presidential nominee. The presidential nominee is already known prior to the party convention, which officially makes the nomination. It is customary for the nominee to have already selected a vice presidential running mate prior to the convention.

Tips & Warnings

• Discuss the down side to this nomination process, including low voter turn out, varying state rules on allocation of delegates and the early primary and caucus influence in small states such as Iowa and New Hampshire.

References

• This Nation: Can you explain the presidential nomination process? How does the delegate system work?
• Air University: Presidential Nominating Process: Current Issues
• The Green Papers: 2012 Chronological Cumulative Allocation of Delegates