Elections Test

In today’s elections, it is a very long and strenuous process. Candidates and all of the committees alike go out and work hard to help themselves win. A lot of what today’s modern society is about is money. That is also what all of the political campaigns are about these days. If you have a lot of money, the better the campaign for you. There are many sources of campaign funds, which includes money given by families, contributions from PAC’s; which are organizations established by corporations, labor unions, or interest groups to channel the contribution of their members into political campaigns. Campaign funds can also come from direct mail contributions. The use of soft money; money not directly contributed to a candidate, is now illegal, and is now replaced by 527’s; which are issue advocacy groups that can’t support a candidate, but can support the issues. Hard money is money given directly to a candidate, which the candidate then uses to help fund his or her campaign. The media is another source that is essential in any campaign. The reporters and journalists help get the word out about the candidate, and what they’re doing, and what’s currently going on. What starts to happen though, when reporters and journalists follow around a candidate is media bias. Media bias is the bias of reporters or journalists within the media, who select which stories and events to cover, and how they’re covered. This usually happens when there is a widespread bias, and the stories that they put out there reflect the opinions that were formed from the large group of people, rather than the perspective of just that individual reporter or journalist. Three factors generally influence the voter’s decisions at the polls: one; partisan loyalty, two; issue/policy concerns, and three; candidate characteristics. Partisan loyalties usually never change. Generally one person chooses to be Democratic or Republican. Often though this sense of identification is handed down from parents to children. It is then reinforced by social and cultural ties. When voting, people usually cast ballots for a candidate whose position on economic issues is closest to their own. If voters are satisfied with their economic prospects, they tend to support the party in power, where voter unease about the economy tends to favor the opposition. There is low voter turnout right now in America. I do not really know if this is a good or bad thing for our country. Voter turnout is the percentage of eligible voters who cast a ballot in an election. Right now there is a low mobilization level among Latino’s. That could be for two reasons. One; there’s low rates of voter registration, and two; there’s low rates of naturalization. I believe that there is a low voter turnout because a lot of people do not know a lot of what is going on around them. I think if people watched the news more, or if people were more involved in what’s going on around them, then there would be a higher turnout rate. They do say though that the Latino population is increasing and it’s becoming more important because there could be an increase in voting rates. I believe that the election process in America is not truly democratic, because in ways it is totally unfair, such as the money issue. It is usually all about who has the most money, and who has the best campaigns. It is sometimes not a very fair race, but I guess that is the way things are right now, and there’s not much that can be changed. So the best thing we can do I guess is embrace it and just take it for what it is. Oh yeah! And vote. (=