Presidential Election 2016 (Civic Life #4)

If you’ve been keeping up with my past three blogs, you should (hopefully, if I’ve been doing a good job) have a pretty firm grasp on the origin of political parties in the United States, what the two parties represent in today’s society, and how and where these political parties receive their funds from. Now that you have developed this understanding of our political parties, you are now properly educated and officially prepared for 2016. “What is the big deal with 2016?”, you might be asking me. It’s time for the next Presidential election!

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After that third blog post of mine, about Super PACs and their hidden agenda in our government, you might be a little disgusted with the political party system in our country and want to register as an independent. Now, here in the United States you have many different freedoms, and if you want to register as an independent you are always free to do so. However, I would strongly advise against that for one reason: you are not able to vote in the primary elections for the upcoming election. For most of my readers, who are between 18-20, this is the first election that you can actually vote in the Presidential election, so you might not be familiar with how it works. This is a great video that clearly explains how the election process works from start to finish:

This video does a great job of covering how an election works from start to finish, but only briefly covers the “little get-togethers” that each political party has to choose their presidential candidate. These get-togethers are actually known as primary elections, and they are basically smaller elections within each party, with the winner receiving the honor of representing their political party in the presidential election. When it comes to primary elections, there are two types of primaries: closed, open, and blanket. Which one of these is used depends on the state.

Closed primary elections serve one general purpose: to elect a candidate to represent your party in the general election. Most states have primaries where each party (Democrats and Republicans) has multiple candidates campaign throughout the country, and each state holds an election to choose a candidate. Since these political parties are private organizations that you must register to be a part of, these elections are limited to members of their respective political parties. For example, a registered Democrat can only vote in the Democratic primaries of their state, and a registered Republican can only vote in the Republican primaries. Voters select who they believe to be the top candidate in their party, and who is best fit to win the general election.

Open primary elections are similar, but rather than being tied to your parties specific primary, you can vote in any primary of your choice. However, the rule still applies that you can only vote in one primary. For example, if a registered Democrat wanted to vote in the Republican primary elections, he can do that, but then he cannot vote in any other primary elections, not even his own.

A blanket election is a third type of election, but it is far less common. A blanket election allows any registered voter to vote in ALL primary elections, regardless of political affiliation. This means they can choose candidates for both major parties as well any other primary elections occurring in their state. If this isn’t making much sense to you, this article does an excellent job of explaining the entire process as well as the types of primaries. http://people.howstuffworks.com/primary.htm

This is where my earlier recommendation comes into play. If you still hate Democrats and Republicans and don’t want anything to do with these parties, but you still want to participate in American politics, you must register as an Independent. The problem with this is that if you register as an independent, you cannot vote in a closed or open primary, you are only allowed to vote if it is a blanket primary. Since blanket primaries are usually very uncommon, independents have a very limited voice during primaries. Now, independents do have their own primary elections, but they are very small and honestly don’t have nearly as large an impact as the Democratic or Republican primaries. In my case, ideologically I consider myself to be an independent but I am registered as a Democrat so my voice can be heard in the primary elections.

Political parties: "Resistance is futile."

Political parties: “Resistance is futile.”

The topic of primaries comes up now because since the general election is only a year and a half away, many candidates are beginning to announce their candidacy for the presidential election. Just last week, there was a lot of noise being made on social media as Hilary Clinton, former First Lady and Secretary of State, announced that she would be running for President of the United States. She is the first Democrat to do so, but the Republicans have been pretty active and seem to have a very intense primary election shaping up. This interactive web page from the New York Times does a much better job of outlining each possible candidate much better than I ever could: http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2016/us/elections/2016-presidential-candidates.html?_r=0

Based on this, it shows Clinton as the only confirmed Democrat to be running so far, with three other candidates who will probably run, and there are three confirmed Republicans running with another TEN possible candidates. The makes the Republican ticket a potential thirteen person race. Since I only have one choice so far as a registered Democrat, it seems like a pretty easy choice for me. But regardless of your political affiliation, your ideas, or your opinion on the political party system, we can all share one thing: Being involved. No matter what, it is important to get out and vote in next year’s election. Being an informed and active citizen of the United States is one of the greatest duties you can perform for your country, and our generation is one of the least active generations in terms of voting. So please, take a little bit of time out of your day and rock the vote.

2 Comments on Presidential Election 2016 (Civic Life #4)

  1. dja5294
    April 26, 2015 at 9:04 pm (9 years ago)

    I love the poetical advocacy although I disagree with the system! Check out the Ron Paul v Barney Frank debate tomorrow in Schwab! It’ll be a cracker, as ideologies will collide. I probably will never register as either party to be honest, and will stick myself to local elections and leaders, because national politics to me still disgusts me and doesn’t appease to my views. The two parties in power hold a monopoly over the system, in which will never change when they hold all the money. Oligarchy is what we have in our nation, unfortunately. But otherwise, great advocacy! Massive respect to you and others that want their voices to be heard. It shall be a good election, can’t wait to watch the debates to be honest! I wish independents could even get on national television on debates, yet they don’t have the money. American politics is all about money, unfortunately.

  2. Gabrielle Cilea
    April 26, 2015 at 5:29 pm (9 years ago)

    I really like the YouTube video you added. I think that as we look forward to next year’s election, college students should actively research and watch the news. We have a big say in what we want for policies that will affect us.

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