Election 2020: 89 articles to teach you about how American elections really work
- Written by Jeff Inglis, Politics + Society Editor, The Conversation US
Editors’ note: In a world transformed by a pandemic, few of the fundamentals in Americans’ lives – schools, jobs, even how to shop for groceries – have remained the same. The same is true with the election, where the most basic of the institution’s elements – how, where and when to vote, among them – have changed.
When The Conversation US’s politics editors met to figure out how to provide readers with coverage that would be useful and informative, the approach was clear: a civics lesson. Over the course of roughly 100 articles, our scholars have explained how the U.S. election system works, retold the history of how it got that way and examined what effects and significance those mechanisms have for the nation today.
Here, our team has collected all of these articles, divided thematically, from the very beginning of campaigning through what happens after Election Day itself.
Eugene DePasquale, left, Democratic candidate in Pennsylvania’s 10th Congressional District, in Harrisburg, Penn., Sept. 19, shows that even the traditional handshake with voters has changed in pandemic-era campaigns.
Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images[1]
Campaigning
Basic elements of political campaigning
Campaigning in a pandemic
Campaign tactics
Campaigns send lots of texts.
Jake Olimb/DigitalVision Vectors via Getty Images[2]
Political conventions
Money in politics
Cory Booker can use money left over from his presidential campaign to run for reelection to the Senate.
AP Photo/Patrick Semansky[3]
Candidates’ debates
Media and public perception
President Elizabeth Keane of ‘Homeland’ is a craven politician who has a ruinous tenure in office.
Showtime[4]
Polling
Vice presidential and Cabinet picks
Rep. Bella Abzug speaks to a crowd of some 10,000 at ‘The War is Over’ celebration in Central Park on May 11, 1975, where she called for unconditional amnesty for Vietnam War draft dodgers in Sweden and Canada.
Bettman/Contributer/Getty[5]
International perspectives
A voter casts a ballot at a mobile voting station in California in May 2020.
AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez[6]
The process of voting
History of voting
Voter suppression
Milwaukee voters wait in a social-distancing line, some wearing masks, before voting in the state’s spring elections on April 7.
AP Photo/Morry Gash[7]
Many voters face obstacles
Specific voting groups and blocs
Asian American voters leave a Temple City, California, polling place in 2012, in the state’s first legislative district that is majority Asian American.
Frederic J. Brown/AFP via Getty Images[8]
How to vote
Voting is important. Make sure you know how to do it!
Gregory Rec/Portland Press Herald via Getty Images[9]
Voting in person
Voting by mail
In most states, ballots must be mailed in official envelopes.
AP Photo/Hans Pennink[10]
Staff of the House of Representatives review Illinois’ Electoral College vote report in January 2017.
Samuel Corum/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images[11]
Aftermath
Electoral College
Election integrity
Every vote counts – but what does it mean when election results go to court?
Roberto Schmidt/AFP via Getty Images[12]
Potential for violence
Who decides the outcome?
Under the Electoral Count Act, Congress supervises the counting of the Electoral College ballots in early January after the presidential election happens.
Mark Reinstein/Corbis via Getty Images[13]
How it all ends
References
- ^ Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images (www.gettyimages.com)
- ^ Jake Olimb/DigitalVision Vectors via Getty Images (www.gettyimages.com)
- ^ AP Photo/Patrick Semansky (www.apimages.com)
- ^ Showtime (www.trbimg.com)
- ^ Bettman/Contributer/Getty (www.gettyimages.com)
- ^ AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez (newsroom.ap.org)
- ^ AP Photo/Morry Gash (www.apimages.com)
- ^ Frederic J. Brown/AFP via Getty Images (www.gettyimages.com)
- ^ Gregory Rec/Portland Press Herald via Getty Images (www.gettyimages.com)
- ^ AP Photo/Hans Pennink (newsroom.ap.org)
- ^ Samuel Corum/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images (www.gettyimages.com)
- ^ Roberto Schmidt/AFP via Getty Images (www.gettyimages.com)
- ^ Mark Reinstein/Corbis via Getty Images (www.gettyimages.com)
Authors: Jeff Inglis, Politics + Society Editor, The Conversation US
