Elections

In the American election system elections are held at fixed intervals. Congress cannot be dissolved nor the President made to resign, so any decisive changes can only be introduced by regularly staged elections. Public interest in the elections is most widespread in each leap year when the President and the Vice-President are elected. Off-year elections, for offices other than the presidency, are held every two years on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November. Every two years (in even-numbered years because members to the first House were elected in 1800) all members of the House of Representatives are elected. At the same time voters elect one-third of the Senators. (There are 100 Senators; each Senator serves for six years). In practice most members of Congress stand for re-election.

So every four years an American votes for the President and the Vice-President, and for members of Congress. Americans today vote by secret ballot. Some states still use paper ballots, but mechanical devices whereby a voter simply pulls a lever to record his vote have been spreading. Each state is constitutionally entitled to have two seats in the Senate and at least one in the House of Representatives. As to the number of other seats for each state in the House, the US Constitution provides only that it shall be determined by the population. Thirty-five states which have more than three representatives each are divided by their state legislatures into districts with one Congressman elected in each district. This is called the single-member district system. In each district the candidate is elected by a simple majority. This means that the one who gets most votes wins – a provision more popularly known as the “winner takes all” principle. A similar system operates in Presidential elections, where the number of electoral votes is decisive.

Presidential Elections

Presidential elections are certainly one of the most important ingredients of the American way of life. The process has always involved three main stages: (a) the nomination of the presidential candidates, (b) the voting for the presidential electors by citizens eligible for voting and willing to come to the polls, (c) the voting for the President by the presidential electors. It should also be added that when we say “President”, this automatically involves his “running mate”, as Americans aptly call the Vice-President. The President and the Vice-President run in the elections as a pair and it is not possible to split the vote.

The three stages of the election process have to be somehow scheduled in time. In each presidential election year stage 1 takes place in the summer; stage 2 on the general-election day – the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November; and stage 3 on the first Monday after the second Wednesday in December. Collectively the presidential electors are called the Electoral College. The electors are not required to meet in one place or move from their states. On the first Monday after the second Wednesday in December, each elector arrives at his state capital and formally casts his vote on the President-Vice-President ticket. The Constitution gives electors freedom to vote for whomever they wish, but in practice they have almost always followed the choice made on the general-election day. As a rule, electors remain loyal to their political parties, and individual departures have never affected the final results of the election.

Since the 1830s each party has followed the National Convention method for electing presidential candidates. This uniquely American institution has easily affirmed its authority and importance in nominating presidential candidates. The Democratic and the Republican parties hold their conventions separately. It has been usual for the party not in power in the White House to hold its convention first. Delegates to the Convention are party nominees from each state. Ways of nominating the delegates differ. The most common method is by primary election, which is held in some thirty states now. The primaries usually begin early in spring in the presidential election year and it has become customary for the state of New Hampshire to hold its primary first. This is closely watched by the whole nation because the New Hampshire results are an important indication as to which party and candidates are likely to win.

Before the National Conventions each party will usually have several major candidates willing to run for the Presidency in November. When the delegates come to the Convention, their task is to reduce the number of candidates to a single candidate by the end of the Convention. The two candidates that enter the election campaign must be nominees of the two main Conventions. Although the Convention turns into something like a celebration of a great ritual, and a great deal of time is allowed first to nominate and then to vote for the candidate, the real decisions are usually made behind the scenes as a result of days of bargaining and compromise. The Convention is also responsible for presenting the platform (the main program put forward by the party at a particular election) but platforms seem to be far less important than candidates.

In fact it is not realistic today to discuss the presidential elections without concentrating on the two essential ingredients that have come to dominate the American political scene. These are television and the opinion polls. Gallup and Harris are the best known polls in the United States but there are hundreds of thousands of professional organizations which make regular surveys of the opinions and feelings of potential voters in order to identify basic public attitudes. It may be added here that at least since the turn of last century, when scientific survey techniques of probing the public opinion had not yet been devised, the American political vocabulary has contained the very convenient term “grass-roots politics”, which essentially describes the practice of learning about people’s attitudes.

1 Give Ukrainian equivalents for the following words and expressions.

To incorporate in the constitution; regularly staged elections; to stand for re-election; to be eligible for voting; running mate; to split the vote; Electoral College; to move bodily; grass-roots politics.

2 Translate words and word combinations from Ukrainian into English and use them in your own sentences.

Проводити вибори через регулярні проміжки часу; розпускати Конгрес; перерозподіляти місця; одномандатні округи; офіційний кандидат від партії; балотуватися на пост президента; визначати настрої в суспільстві; зворотній зв'язок.

3 Comprehension questions.

1. How often are elections held in the US?

2. Whom and when do Americans elect?

3. Do the borders of constituencies remain intact through decades?

4. What are the three stages of presidential elections?

5. How is the Vice President elected?

6. What is the function of the Electoral College? How is it exercised?

7. How are party presidential nominees decided?

8. What is “grass-roots politics”?

Vocabulary work. Put the correct words from a–d below in the text. Watch the video on http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_95I_1rZiIs&feature=fvsr to check your answers.