This page has various vids for you to watch in order to understand what US elections are, and how they work, If you scroll down there's also short vids that give you further contextual insights in the 2016 presidential race, the 2018 mid-terms - definitely worth having a pen/paper/laptop to hand for supporting your notes !! (… Keep scrolling down, the PPT for the course is there too!).
To get you going - this 2012 vid is worth viewing (bit dated, but the process remains unchanged):
Here's a couple of links that will get you going:
- 270towin is a link that I want you to be familiar with as it's something that we'll use at various stages of this topic to illustrate election outcomes in the USA. See: http://www.270towin.com/
- The Presidential primary Seasons for 2008 & 2012 are listed here (including the emerging calendar for 2016). This link provides an overview of the dates as well as an interesting insight into the issue of "front loading" in the nomination process (Something we'll be studying as part of this topic). See: frontloading.blogspot.co.uk/p/2016-presidential-primary-calendar.html
Primary Elections
PRIMARY SEASON EXPLAINED: As promised, here's the link to that crazy-fast (but useful!) clip we looked at in class - I suggest you watch it a time or two in order to assimilate the process:
Electoral College
Here's a similar explanation of the Electoral College too: www.youtube.com/watch?v=_95I_1rZiIs Alternatively this is the version we used in class:
This is a good (brief - 6 mins) evaluation of Trump's win in 2016:
The next two vids give you a good oversight into the 2018 mid-terms. The first deals with the actual results for the parties (6-7 mins). The second (17 mins) is a BBC analysis of the electorate and the changes in US politics that are still to be played out in November 2020. WATCH & NOTE!!