Q. What's the difference between a caucus and a primary?

A. A caucus is a closed meeting of a group of people of the same political party who select candidates or policy. A primary is an election in which qualified voters choose a candidate or panel of candidates by casting ballots.

A caucus can be a brutal process. For the Iowa Caucus, groups of people comprised of the same political party gather in select locations throughout Iowa. Republicans hold a straw vote with either a show of hands or a ballot. Democrats use a show of hands, sign-in sheet, or ask people to separate into groups by the candidate they wish to support. The caucus cannot end until the precinct has one candidate with 15 percent of the votes.

Once a candidate receives 15 percent of the votes, the candidate wins the precinct's nomination. A delegate is sent from the precinct to one of the 99 county conventions and casts his or her precinct's vote.

Primaries are a bit different. An open election is held in the state of the primary. Voters cast ballots for the candidate(s) they wish to move on to the next level. Voters may only vote for the party they are registered for in that state. Registered Independents are unable to vote in primary elections.

Q. How often are presidential elections held in the United States?

A. Presidential elections are held every four years in the United States.

Although states hold elections every two years for U.S. Senators and U.S. State Representatives, the presidential election tends to receive a higher voter turnout and more media attention.

Election Day is the first Tuesday after the first Monday in the month of November, as per the Constitution. This year, it is November 2.

Q. What are the names of the two main political parties in the United States?

A. The two main political parties in the United States are the Republican Party and the Democratic Party.

For whatever reason, the United States has only had two dominant political parties throughout most of its history. Although anyone can start his or her own party, and there are quite a few additional parties, third-party candidates rarely receive the support needed to win any electoral votes.

Q. True or False: the President of the United States is determined by a popular vote.

A. False, the Presidency is determined by the votes cast by the electoral college.

When the forefathers were drafting the Constitution of the U.S., they felt most Americans were ignorant of politics. To accommodate their fears, they established the Electoral College.

Here's how the college works. Each state receives a number of electors equal to the number of representatives for that state. There are currently 538 electors (435 for the U.S. House of Representatives, 100 for the U.S. Senate, and 3 for Washington, D.C.). The candidate who wins the popular vote of each state, wins the state's electoral votes. Depending on each state's Constitution, selected delegates, equal to the number of electors for the state, travel to Washington, D.C., to vote. A candidate must receive a majority of the electoral votes to win the presidency. The Electoral College meets to vote on the Monday following the second Wednesday in December of an election year.

Q. When is the president-elect sworn into office?

A. After winning the election, the president-elect is sworn into office on January 20 of the subsequent year. He is sworn in by the Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court.


How'd you do? If you got all of them right, perhaps you should run for office. If you got a few right, you might want to take political science course. If you didn't get any right, perhaps a brush-up on the Constitution is needed.

Written by Ross Schmadebeck

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