William_T._Bianco,_David_T._Canon]_American_Polit

300 Chapter 9 | Elections

Americans elect the entire House of Representatives, one-third of the Senate, and a

president and vice president. During midterm elections (2010, 2014, 2018,.. .), there

is no presidential contest, but the entire House and a third of the Senate are up for

election.

One implication of this two-step process of primary and general elections is that

sometimes the winner of a primary is not a party’s best candidate for the general

election. For example, in the 2016 presidential race, one of the principal arguments

for choosing someone other than Hillary Clinton as the Democratic nominee (such as

Senator Bernie Sanders, Vice President Joe Biden, or some other Democratic senator

or governor) was that these candidates would have had a better chance of winning

the general election. While Clinton had many enthusiastic volunteers, a first-rate

campaign organization, and considerable Washington experience as First Lady,

senator, and secretary of state, she was also strongly disliked by a sizable fraction of the

American electorate—partly because of her status as a Washington insider, and partly

because of issues such as her use of a private e-mail server while secretary of state. In

the end, despite beating Sanders in the primaries and discouraging other Democrats

from entering the nomination contest, Clinton lost the general election to Donald

Trump. Given the closeness of the 2016 election, another Democrat, someone who did

not have Clinton’s disadvantages, might well have gone on to defeat Trump.

Mechanics of Elections

The Constitution limits voting rights to American citizens who are at least 18 years

old. There are also numerous restrictions on voter eligibility that vary across states,

including residency requirements (usually 30 days) and prohibitions for people

convicted of a major crime. A recent development in American elections is an increase

in the practice of no-excuse absentee voting as well as early voting, or casting a general-

election vote prior to Election Day.^3 Voters in Oregon vote entirely by mail, and almost

all votes in Washington State are cast by mail. Across the nation in 2018, more than a

third of votes were cast before Election Day and many campaigns distributed absentee

ballots to would-be supporters. These changes have had only a modest impact on voter

turnout, perhaps because efforts by candidates and parties to encourage early voting

have reduced resources allocated to mobilization efforts on Election Day.^4

The most fundamental feature of American elections is that officeholders are

elected in single-member districts in which only the winner of the most votes takes

office. (Although both of each state’s senators represent the whole state, they are elected

Americans vote in all sorts of places,

including libraries, fire stations,

schools, and private homes. Here,

people vote at the Oklahoma County

Board of Elections in Oklahoma City

for the 2018 primaries.

After Hillary Clinton lost her campaign

for president, many Democrats

wondered if Senator Bernie Sanders

(I-VT) would have been a stronger

general-election candidate.

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