The Nominating Process The Big Idea The nominating

The Nominating Process

The Big Idea The nominating process is a key part of an election because it narrows te field of possible candidates

Five ways to nominate Self-Announcement: A person declares him or herself to be a candidate Petition: A candidate gets a certain number of qualified voters to sign a petition Caucus: A group of like-minded people meet to select candidates Convention: A political party’s members meet to select candidates Direct Primary: An election is held within a party to pick its candidates

How do we get candidates? Declaration of candidacy: each candidate must do one of the 5 ways to announce their run. Primary/Caucus: candidates go through this process to narrow down the field to one nominee for each of the political parties. General Election National Convention: each party holds a convention to announce their pick for the National General Election

Closed Primary • Only declared party members can vote • Party membership is established by registration • the day of the election your registration is checked and you are given the ballot for your party • 27 states Open Primary • any qualified voter can take part • voters pick the party primary they wish to vote in • you can only vote in ONE • Virginia is open primary • Blanket primary • open • all names are listed without party affiliation

Closed Primary pros • Those who favor Closed have 3 arguments 1. It prevents one party from “raiding” the other’s primary in hope of nominating weaker candidates in the other party 2. It helps make candidates more responsive to the party, its platform, and its members 3. It helps make voters more thoughtful, because they must choose between the parties in order to vote in the primaries

Closed Primary cons Critics of Closed 1. It compromises the secrecy of the ballot because it forces voters to make their party preferences known in public 2. it tends to exclude independent voters from the nomination process