US election process explanation?

Question

I have been very interested in the upcoming Presidential election, but I am confused about these caucus states. Apparently they only caucus in a few states. Why is that? Who decides who gets to vote in these caucus', or do all the residents of Iowa, New Hampshire, etc get to vote. Do the winners of the caucus' then go on to the Primary? Why are the caucus states moving their dates up? What is the advantage?
If you are well educated on this process, could you please explain it to me?

Oh, and how does the electoral college figure into the equasion. It's all very confusing.

Answer 1

I'll try to explain this in the quickest, easiest way possible.

1. "Apparently they only caucus in a few states. Why is that?"
-The idea of the caucuses was to let the people (us) decide who was going to run for office, instead of the individual parties deciding. previously, the candidates were chosen at the {party} National Conventions. Caucus' put the power into the hands of the voters. Originally, all states had the ability to caucus, then over time most gave up the practice, and in the recent past states have decided they want to caucus again. (Mainly due to national attention to the process during the voting season.)

2. "Who decides who gets to vote in these caucus', or do all the residents of Iowa, New Hampshire, etc get to vote."
- in order to vote in a caucus, you have to be A. registered to vote. B. registered with a political party and C. vote only in the caucus for your party. i.e. Democratic Caucus, Republican etc.

3. "Do the winners of the caucus' then go on to the Primary?"
- In this case, with a few minor differences, the two words are one in the same. Most states have Primary elections, few states have Caucuses.....but they're both doing the same thing...picking one candidate to run for President from each party. They are both narrowing down the choice to one.

4. "Why are the caucus states moving their dates up? What is the advantage?"
- The quick answer, is that everyone wants to be first. New Hampshire is first, and Iowa is second. They only want the notoriety, and to be on the news. That's it. This year, Michigan tried to jump New Hampshire, so NH moved it's date even closer. (i.e. next week). The only real benefit is the "first" label. (I believe it's even written into the NH constitution that they have to be first. so if someone tries to jump NH again, NH will just move up again)

Bonus: Electoral College

Each state gets electoral votes based on the number of US Reps, and Senators that they have. Alabama (Where I live) has 9 votes (7 reps, 2 senators). There are 538 votes total (3 for Washington DC, who is not represented in Congress but is still given 3 votes based on population).

Most states use a "winner takes all" approach to the EC....if a Republican wins the state, then he/she gets all EC votes. (Maine and Nebraska actually break theirs up based on the percentage of votes.....if a canditate won by a margin of 2 to 1, then one candidate would get 66.5% of the EC votes, and the other would get 33.5%)

The magic number to win is 270. If you can get 270 EC votes, then you will be elected President of the United States.

Hope this helps!

Answer 2

Every state holds either caucuses or primary elections to choose delegates for that state to the parties' national conventions. Most states hold elections rather than caucuses because the elections are a simpler process and allow for broader participation. Each state sets its own rules through state law, determining whether to hold a primary or caucus and when the date will be.

For historical reasons that make no logical sense whatsoever, the most important events are the Iowa caucuses and the New Hampshire primary. This bothers other states, who think that their voters should have more of a say in choosing party nominees. For instance, I live in California, which has over 30 times the population of New Hampshire, but my state hasn't played a significant role in choosing the nominee of either party since 1972. That has led other states, including California, to move their primaries and caucuses earlier. But since each state is looking for it's own advantage and there's no national body controlling the process, it just gets messier. A whole lot of states have moved to the same date this year, but for most it just means they'll be pretty much ignored. (Because a whole bunch of states are going on the same day as California and New York, everybody will focus on those big states and barely notice the smaller ones).

All of this is only about choosing the party nominees, which means it has nothing to do with the Electoral College. The Electoral College is the means for naming the winner of the general election after the nominees are named, and is a whole other story. I won't bother explaining it here; I've seen several good explanation in other question (including a few by me) on YA.

Answer 3

Much simpler system everyone up for the election at the same time not just half like you do. Election campaign two months long much less disruption to regular life and television schedule. The Prime Minister (President in your case) would be the leader of the party in the House of Representatives that received the most seats. He has two jobs leader of the country and his home district's representative to the house. The other big difference all members of cabinet are members of the house. Yes American system is strange but you are not quite accurate on electoral college some states get more votes than others but you found out what they do not tell. They CAN vote any way they want to.

Answer 4

whoever controls the computerized election machinery chooses who gets most popular votes.
whoever has the most money gets the electoral college votes.
it's not really very complicated.