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Politics dominates just about everything these days, so it may seem like we’re always in campaign season.
But there are many more moving parts when it’s a presidential election year.
Primary vs. Caucus
If the word caucus conjures up the word Iowa for you, there’s good reason.
Since 1972, Iowa has held the first voting contest, a caucus, in presidential election years.
“Caucuses are kind of fascinating because it’s a throwback to pre-modern America,” said Jon Taylor, chair of the Department of Political Science and Geography at UTSA.
In a primary, voters go to the polls, cast their ballots, and leave.
“What’s different about a caucus is that you actually have to show up,” said Juan Sepulveda. “You have to be there at a meeting. You have to hang around for a while. You can’t just show up, vote and leave.”
Sepulveda ran the Texas campaign for President Obama in 2008 and is now the Ron Caalgard Distinguished Professor of Practice in Political Science at Trinity University.
“I think Iowa has something like close to 3,000 precincts across the state,” said Taylor. “So imagine 3,000 different precinct meetings in which people are showing up and voicing their support for somebody. It is a highly intensive process to get people to participate.”
What’s the significance of the Iowa caucuses?
“Because it’s the very first and because it proves your organizational skills,” said Taylor.
A primary is the form of election that Texans and voters in the majority of states are used to.
“A primary election is the voters’ opportunity to vote for the candidates they would like their party to put on the ballot in November,” said Lisa Hayes, Elections Administrator in Guadalupe County.
The person who wins that vote in the Republican and Democratic primaries will be on the ballot for the general election in November.
The general election decides who takes office.
Individual states and the political parties within those states lay out the rules of a primary election.
How often can the rules change?
“Too many times,” Sepulveda said with a laugh. “They can change it as much as they want, right? And they have.”
New Hampshire is usually the first state to hold a democratic primary in the presidential race.
“New Hampshire, in fact, has on the books a law that says we’re always going to be the first primary state,” said Taylor.
But not in 2024.
“President Biden did not want them to go first,” said Sepulveda. “And so the DNC passed something that said South Carolina is going to go first.”
However, New Hampshire still followed its own law and held its first Democratic primary this year.
“But they were stripped of all their delegates, so they have no delegates to go to the Democratic Convention because they broke the Democratic Party rules by going ahead of a state that was tagged — in this case, South Carolina — to go first.”
What’s a delegate?
A delegate is someone who represents a vote on behalf of their state for the candidate who won the primary in that state.
“Who becomes the nominee is really based on the number of delegates,” said Sepulveda.
A delegate is chosen by a state’s Democratic or Republican party based on their role in the party.
“Normally, it’s people who are well-connected to the party, who have a lot of roots in the party, who have done a lot of work for a campaign,” said Taylor. “It’s a reward for some people.”
Others become delegates because they’re elected officials within their party.
Delegates carry out duties at a convention, first at the state level and then at the national level.
Your primary vote
In Texas, Democratic and Republican primaries are held at the same time.
Voters must choose which party’s primary to vote in, but that is not the same as registering as a member of either party.
Texas does not register voters by political party.
The party choice made by voters in the primary is not one they must stick with in the general election.
In other words, if you voted for a Republican in the primary, you do not have to vote Republican in the general election and vice versa.
However, if there is a runoff in that primary, voters must stick with the same party in the runoff.
“A person can’t vote in the Republican primary and then vote in the Democratic primary runoff,” said Hayes.
Voters in Guadalupe County, like in Bexar County, use a hybrid method that incorporates both a digital selection process and a paper ballot.
You enter a paper ballot into the machine, make selections on a screen, and then the machine prints the paper ballot showing your selections.
Those machines are not connected to the internet.
Voters insert that printed ballot into a separate machine, and then they’re done.
Photo ID required
Texas requires voters to show a government-issued photo identification — such as a driver’s license, passport or military ID — before casting a ballot. Even a state-issued license to carry a handgun works.
CLICK HERE TO CHECK OUT ALL FORMS OF PHOTO ID ACCEPTED AT POLLS
Voters do not need to have a voter registration card with them to vote.
Additionally, voters cannot have cellphones out while at the polls because they are considered a recording device.
Hayes said there is something voters can take with them to help make their selections that often gets overlooked — a sample ballot.
“Sample ballots are wonderful. Sample ballots are a chance for a voter to prepare themselves for what they’re going to see when they get to the polls,” Hayes said. “They can even mark them and bring them in already marked. Not everyone knows that, but it’s totally legal.
CLICK HERE TO CHECK OUT A BEXAR COUNTY SAMPLE BALLOT FOR THE 2024 PRIMARY
CLICK HERE TO CHECK OUT A GUADALUPE COUNTY SAMPLE BALLOT FOR THE 2024 PRIMARY
Electoral Votes
A presidential candidate who gets the most votes from people across the country does not win office.
Instead, a candidate must win 270 electoral votes to win.
“The Electoral College was a compromise that came about a long time ago to really make sure that small states still had a voice in the process,” said Sepulveda.
It’s a method to keep the biggest states, with the biggest populations, from determining every election.
Texas has 40 electoral votes.
How is that number determined?
It’s the number of congressional districts in the state plus votes for each of its two senators. In Texas, that’s 38 + 2.
“In most states, it’s winner-take-all, which means that whoever wins the general in Texas, they get our electoral votes,” said Taylor.
The majority of states — including the biggest states like Texas, California, Florida and New York — are solidly red or blue.
It’s no secret which candidate will get their electoral votes.
That’s why swing states are so critical to a campaign. They’re the states that could swing either blue or red.
“This time around, folks from both sides on the Republican and Democratic side, say that it’s five to maybe seven states,” Sepulveda said. “So Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, Georgia, Arizona, Nevada, maybe North Carolina are the only states that are going to matter.”
“That’s not a good thing for the country, that most of the country doesn’t really matter,” he said. “I hate to say that, but that’s the system we have. And if you’re a campaign, you got to play the rules of what’s in front of you.”