Election Glossary

All of the US Election's Terms Defined

Caucuses: A method used by some states in order to choose their preferred candidate for a party’s nomination. A caucus is a meeting of a local party group, usually in a town hall, school gymnasium or some such place. Those who gather hear stump speeches for the candidates and once all the candidates have been represented, and further discussion has been had by the caucus-goers, a vote is held. The result of that vote is then reported to the state party who add up the numbers and determine how many delegates each candidate receives.

Conventions: Both major parties will hold National Conventions in order to officially select it’s nominees for President and Vice President of the United States. The Democratic National Convention will be held between September 3^rd and 6^th in Charlotte, North Carolina, and at the convention President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden will almost certainly receive their party’s nominations unopposed. The Republican National Convention will be held a week earlier (August 27^th-30^th) in Tampa Bay, Florida. A vote will be held to officially determine the nominee, though the outcome of that vote should be known long beforehand. If the convention is hung (i.e. no candidate gains the 1,144 votes required to win), then the delegates are released and the party will have to choose a nominee regardless of the results of the primaries and caucuses which are currently being held.

Delegates: The current state-by-state primaries and caucuses are being used to determine how many delegates each candidate is to have at the Republican Party’s National Convention. At that convention, the delegates apportioned by each state will vote for the candidate to which they have been assigned. On top of this, there are the votes of the super-delegates. The winning candidate needs to receive 1,144 delegates to win.

Electoral College: The Electoral College is the body which actually votes for who the President and Vice-President of the United States shall be. Each state gets a number of electors in the college, according to the size of its population. The number of electors for any state is the same as the number of seats a state has in the House of Representatives. There are also three electors for the District of Columbia. Whichever candidate wins the most votes in any state receives that state’s electoral votes (with the exceptions of Maine and Nebraska, who split some of their electors according to who won the vote within individual congressional districts). A candidate for President or Vice President requires 270 electoral votes to win. The votes are counted and verified by a joint-session of Congress (usually on January 6^th) In the event of a 269-269 tie, the sitting Speaker of the House (or Vice President-elect, if one has been chosen) becomes Acting President on inauguration day (January 20^th) until such a time as the Congress can choose a President.

General Election: The United States General Election will be held on Tuesday 6th November, 2012. It is a Presidential Election, where President Barack Obama will be challenged by a Republican opponent, and is held on the same day as elections for all of the 435 seats in the House of Representatives, and a third of the Senate (33 seats). The result of the Presidential Election is determined not by popular vote but on a state-by-state basis. Each state returns electors to the Electoral College, which officially chooses the President and Vice President.

Primaries: Primary elections are straight forward, statewide polls to decide a preferred candidate for a party’s nomination. Voters cast their ballots, which are counted and the result determines how many delegates each candidate receives.

Super-delegates: When the Republican Party officially comes together for its National Convention, it will hold a vote for who will receive it’s nomination for President of the United States. Most of the delegates who get to vote for that will have been assigned by state parties to vote for a particular candidate according to the result of that state’s primary or caucus. However, there are a significant number of “Super-delegates” (sometimes known as unpledged delegates), who are figures within the party who are given an autonomous vote in that election independent of any caucus or primary result.


Super PAC: This is a kind of "Political action committee" which has arisen over the last few years because of various judicial decisions. Super PACs can take unlimited donations from individuals, unions and corporations as they are "independent-expenditure only committees" (by comparison, campaigns can take a maximum of $2,500 per individual). Super PACs often support individual candidates, but are not allowed to "co-ordinate" with campaigns in anyway. However, they are often founded and run by close associates of candidates. Furthermore, candidates are allowed to help raise money for the Super PACs. The spending power and effect of Super PACs has come to the fore of the public consciousness because of the huge number of negative ads that Super PACs have produced, officially independently of candidates. Satirist Steven Colbert set up his own Super PAC to highlight the absurdities of the new system.

Swing State: A swing state is a state which is usually won by a very small margin, often because of very diverse and complex demographics in its populous, and often switches hands between the two main parties. These states are viewed as particularly crucial in General Elections, regardless of the number of Electoral College votes they hold.