Election Process
To become a member of Congress in the U.S. one must be elected in a Direct Primary or be a write in candidate. Being a write in candidate is very difficult because the voter would have to write in the name of the candidate and there is no party support for those candidates. A Direct Primary is a "pre-election" to determine who runs for each party.
Direct Primary
There are two types of direct primaries, an open primary and a closed primary.
Open PrimaryAn open primary is where anyone can vote for the candidates. The advantage of this is to get a public view of who the people want to represent them in Congress. The disadvantage would be that people from the opposite party could vote for the worst of the candidates.
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Closed PrimaryA closed primary is where only registered party voters can vote for a candidate. The advantage of this is the best candidate would be given the chance to run for Congress. The disadvantage is given to the swing voters, the voters that do not have a set party, these voters would not have any say in the candidates.
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Incumbency
Congress members that go for re-election typically are voted back into office because they have experience in Congress which their opponent does not have.
- Reapportionment
Reapportionment is determining how many seats in the House each state gets based on the census. This occurs every ten years.
- Redistricting
Redistricting is redrawing the boundaries of the Congressional districts to keep each district’s population relatively the same.
- Gerrymandering
Gerrymandering is reshaping Congressional Districts so they strongly favor one party over another. This is used to help one party earn more seats from that state than the other. This is a strategic way to earn more votes or win elections that would otherwise go to the other party. People believe that gerrymandering is not democratic because the outcome is predicted based on the districting and the registered voters. However the new districts must be approved by the Supreme Court. Gerrymandered districts are shaped odd because they must have a certain amount of people and the party that changed the districts wants to win the majority of the state. This either helps or hurts a candidates chances of becoming a representative in the House, depending on the party of that individual.