In 7th period we started the class off with the discussion of early voting being offered in a number of states. There was some talk of how this was going to cause problems with recounts and also troubles with the technology being used.
Our class kept it pretty brief and then we went into notes.

Chapter 9:
Evolution of campaigning
1)election campaign organized effort to choose one candidate over another competing for the same office
2)Increasingly,election campaigns have evolved from being party centered to being candidate centered.

In the United States candidates campaign for nomination and election.
1)most aspiring for major office are nominated through primary election.
A)In both parties only about half of regular party voters bother to vote in any given primary (though this varies by state and contest.)
1)some research shows primary voters hold more extreme views than party members who didn't vote in other primaries.
2)others suggest this is unrepresentative of the general population.
3)some say voters subordinate their views, choosing candidates that will fare better.
B)Primary elections for congressional and state offices may be:closed, open, or blanket.
closed-voters identify/declare a party where they get a ticket for that party and can't split there vote between parties. This is the most common.
open-can pick either ballot. Only few states have this method.
blanket-get ballot listing all the candidates for all the parties.
only 3 states have.
California proposed the "jungle" method where on the ballot the candidate's parties name is not identified. This was shut down by the supreme court.
C)Important thing to remember is that our parties choose their candidates through election. Started in the U.S. and remains unique to our country resulting in the decentralization of power in the parties.
2)To nominate a presidential candidate, parties employ a complex mix of ways of polling voters, including presidential primaries, local party caucuses and party conventions.
presidential primary-special primary to select delegates to attend party's national nominating convention.
Most states use presidential primaries rather that local caucuses leading to state conventions.
B)local caucus method of delegate selection is a more complex series of meetings used in 9 states and all 4 territories.
C)nearly all delegates selected in primaries are publicly committed to specific candidates so that one can easily tell before the parties summer nominating conventions who will be their nominees.
-front loading (the tendency during the last 2 decades for states to move their primaries earlier in the calendar to gain attention from media and candidates) means nominees are chosen earlier and earlier.
3)primary-centered nomination process has several consequences .
A)because of complex system of caucus and primary methods used to select delegates,timing and luck can affect who wins and even an outside chance of success can attract many candidates if there is no incumbent president running for reelection.
B)candidates favored by most party identifiers usually win their party's nomination
C)candidates who win the nomination do so largely on their own and owe little or nothing to the national party organization