What is the congressional electoral process?

Question

Like also what the costs of running for office, and what are constituents

Answer 1

Starting from the back, constituents are people who live and vote in the district. The term comes from the fact that election districts are called constituencies in the United Kingdom.

The costs of running for office depend on the district. A major component is advertisment. In practically all districts, there is the problem of "bleed" in advertising. "Bleed" is the fact that some of your advertising reaches people who do not reside in your district (and to a lesser extent reside in your district but are not likely voters). This problem is most serious in major metropolitan areas like New York or Los Angeles where there are over 10-20 districts in the media market. Because ad rates are based on total viewers/readers/listeners, a large degree of bleed increases the per voter expenditure. It is not unusual for the race for a house seat to cost over $1 million.

As noted in a previous answer, seats in the House of Representatives are based on population. Without describing the complex system used to determine the exact number of seats per state, the number per state runs from 53 in California to 1 in several of the smallest states. In all states, elections are run in single member districts. Under rulings from the U.S. Supreme Court, these districts are of roughly equal size (ranging from 95% to 105% of the ideal population).

In most states, the election process begins with a filing period for the "established" parties. Under most state laws, parties that received above a certain percent (typically 1%) of the vote in the last election are automatically on the ballot. However, these parties are also subject to state law on the selection of their candidates. Typically, this requires that the party use a primary to choose their nominee if more than one candidate files for the office. While incumbents rarely have serious challengers in primaries, they typically have one or two persons who lack substantial support who do file against them in the primary.

Each state has different laws regarding who can vote in the primary, the procedure for filing to run in the primary, and the date of the primary. In addition to the candidates who are nominated by the established party via a primary, each state has procedures by which a new party can run a candidate or an individual can file as an independent. Typically these procedures involve a petition signed by a substantial number of registered voters. All of the candidates nominated, whether by primary or by petition, are on the general election ballot. At the present time, all states use a first-past-the-post system in which voters vote for one candidate and the candidate with the most votes (even if less than 50%) is elected. In all states, general elections are held on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November in even-years.

As noted by a previous answer, in addition to the members in the House of Representatives, each state has two Senators. The Senators are elected statewide. Because the terms of the Senators are 6 years (instead of the two for the House), normally only one Senator is on the ballot at the time. The exception to this would be if there was a vacancy requiring a special election to fill the balance of the term. Because the states are drastically different sizes, the cost is even more varied than for the House. In an average size state (no major media markets, 8-10 Representatives), it is not unusual for a Senate race to cost over $10 million. The procedures for Senate elections are the same as the procedures for a House election.

Answer 2

The Congress of the United States is composed of the House of Representatives and the Senate.

The House has 435 members. They are elected to two-year terms, and all of them run for election every two years. The number of Representatives a State has depends on its population. Most states are divided into districts. Constituents are the people who live in the district and who are entitled to vote in the election.

The Senate has 100 members. Each state has two Senators, regardless of its population. Senators are elected to six-year terms. One-third of the Senate runs every two years. This is so that there will never be a complete turnover in the Senate's membership.

Answer 3

it is not a Republican theory often. In states that often vote Democratic, Republicans like the assumption as a vogue of having a number of those votes. Democrats like it in Republican states for an analogous reason. even yet it comes up very hardly. As for giving "the persons" extra capability, it supplies some human beings extra capability and a few human beings much less. it'd supply extra capability to those that're in many situations disregarded via the presidential applicants - those in states that often vote an analogous way with a snug majority, and extremely small states. it'd supply much less capability to human beings in super swing states. it'd make the marketing campaign particularly nationwide. i like that for the duration of theory. In prepare, it'd mean applicants might desire to enhance so plenty extra money and might very much improve the impact of money factors. it'd additionally mean many extra close recounts, and we would locate out purely what number states and localities have not greater their election practices after the instructions of Florida in 2000. *IF* somebody can advise this concept linked to marketing campaign finance reform that particularly reduces the impact of money pursuits and cleans up erratic vote counts, i might help it. yet which would be confusing, and might require a constitutional substitute.