Selecting A President
How are presidential candidates selected?
They are selected in this whole system of primaries, and caucuses, and conventions. And it will go on all through the winter and the spring. And eventually we will have a candidate for each of the parties that are going to be on the ballot.
How does everyone know who the candidate is going to be before a convention?
They're trying to see how many of the total votes that they're going to get at the party convention. The parties know how many states have to vote for a specific candidate for that party to win it's nomination at the national convention of that party. So, they have the total votes that are cast, and each state has as a portion of that, so they're counting votes as they go along. So you'll see as the primaries go they'll say, "This candidate has this percentage, this one has this percentage, this candidate has that percentage." It does change. Right now we're faced with a lot of choices which is good. I think the more choices we have the better our democracy is working. Of course, a lot of those candidates will not be there at the end. We're going to narrow it down from one to each political party, so candidates will drop out before the end of the primary season. We're starting to see that right now. They put their name in a hat and they see how they do, they try to raise money because that's a big part of the process and if they don't do so well they may decide not to continue.
What is a 'third-party' candidate?
We call third-parties anybody that isn't Democratic or a Republican in the United States. We have had very active third-party candidate campaigns and they have their own platforms and there's a reason they're running and because they have something to say that the Democrats and the Republicans are not saying.
Why are there usually only Republican and Democratic presidential candidates?
The way our system runs is the two major parties sort of have control over a lot of it, so it's very hard for a 3rd party to get started and raise the resources and the money and the backing that it needs. You have to get on the ballot in all 50 states to really become a national candidate and it takes a lot of money. So it's very hard for a 3rd party candidate, whereas the Democrats and Republicans do fundraising all year for 4 years before the election, so they're ready to go.
How are presidental elections different from other elections?
They're exciting because they affect us all. It's something we all talk about together. I mean I can talk to you about my local Santa Monica candidates and you wouldn't care at all, right? But as president, we're all voting for the president of the United States and it's sort of this standard bearer for who we are in the world and what we represent. So I think we all care about who represents us at the national level. And, of course, with foreign policy being so important in world relations, we're all involved in that decision.
How does the Electoral College work?
The way it works is every state gets a number of delegates equal to how many congressmen that they have and everybody has two senators, so it's 535, plus we've given three votes to the District of Columbia, so it's 538 total, that's how many votes are in the electoral college. It's divied up to the states based on how many representatives that they have in Congress. So when I go to vote, here in California it's in February, and I want to vote for a Presidential candidate, the name of the candidate will be on the ballot, but I'm actually voting for the electoral people to go to the college in January after the election. Remember, the election's in November, the Electoral College doesn't meet until right after the New Year - January something - it's a set date every year, and sometimes it's no problem (we already know who it's going to be and then the votes are very clear), but sometimes there's a very close vote, because the states have elected different presidential candidates and it's actually sometimes decided by the House of Representatives and it makes the final decision. But that's in rare cases, usually it's clear how many states have already pledged their delegates to vote for a certain candidate. That's the interesting thing, there's so much trust in U.S. Government, because we say they should vote for the ones the voter voted for, but they have the right to change their mind and vote for who they want. If they get to the Electoral College and change their mind and they say "Oh, I don't like who the voters picked", then they can change their mind, but they're supposed to pledge to vote for the candidate that the public chose at the election. But there's no - in fact, if there's a tie or a very close election, it frees them from all obligations.
Does my vote really matter in a presidential election?
You're one of a lot of people, but I think that it does matter. Does one vote ever change an election? Well, not on a presidential election, we've had very close presidential elections. Just think about what happened in 2000 between Gore and Bush and you see that votes do count, very few votes can change who becomes our President of the United States, in some cases. Of course your vote counts. It also counts that you feel like you have a stake in the decision, and even when I lose an election and my candidate is not chosen I feel that it's very important. Even if I lose, sometimes I say, well, maybe my decision was the right decision, even though the candidate didn't win.
