Presidential Elections

• The Electoral College is made up of representatives of each state who cast the final ballots that elect a president.

• Party realignment is a shifting of party coalition groupings in the electorate that remains in place for several elections.

• A critical election is one that signals a party realignment through voter polarization around new issues.

• Secular realignment is the gradual rearrangement of party coalitions, based more on demographic shifts than on shocks to the political system.

1. Three preconvention factors that have lessened the role of political parties and conventions in elections are delegate selection, national candidates and issues, and the news media.

2. Three major reform ideas for the Electoral College are the abolition of it, a congressional district plan or to keep the college but abolish the electors. Some people are in favor of abolishing the college completely, and leaving the choice of a president up to the popular vote. They say that it is too traditional and takes away from the true democracy in the United States. Another suggestion is a congressional district plan where each candidate would receive one electoral vote for each congressional district that he/she wins in a state and the winner of the overall popular vote in each state would receive 2 bonus points (one for each senator) for that state. Finally the proposal to keep the college but abolish the electors would eliminate the threat of electors that do not follow the popular vote of their state.

3. The Electoral College results over time reveal which party and regions are coming to dominance and how voters may be changing their loyalties in response to new issues and generational changes. A party realignment is a shifting of party coalition groupings in the electorate that remains in place for several elections. Before a major realignment are one or more critical elections. A critical election is one that signals a party realignment through voter polarization...