Peter Kogler - Political Campaigns

Politicians run campaigns to convince people to vote for them.

INTRODUCTION

THE LONG ROAD TO ELECTION DAY

I n the United States, the day people vote for the next president falls on the first Tuesday after November 1 every four years. Voting for members of Congress is held on this day every two years. The importance of Election Day cannot be understated, as voters take to the polls to determine which politicians will be allowed to lead the country, as well as their state and local community.

Election Day is only possible because of the countless people and tireless efforts involved in the long road of campaigning that it takes to get there. Volunteers, potential voters, campaign staff, and even financial donors all have a part to play in the political campaigns that influence election results. While Election Day is largely a democratic process, its not always a perfect system. Currently, the ability to vote on Election Day is open to Americans of all races, genders, and backgrounds who are legally registered to vote. This has not always been the case, though. When the country was established, only white American men who owned land were allowed to vote. Years of reforms have led to constitutional amendments that have opened the door to millions of voters.

The demographic of voters isnt the only thing thats changed, nor is it the only thing that continues to change. For example, the road to Election Day is becoming an increasingly expensive one. A 2014 article from TIME magazine stated, Since the mid-1980s, the amount dumped on elections by campaigns and outside groups, as measured by the Federal Election Commission (FEC), has grown 555 percentfaster than even the alarming increases in the costs of health care and private college tuition. The costs are expected to keep growing in future elections. However, some studies have found that despite the increase in campaign spending, voter turnout has decreased in some elections.

Women had to fight hard to gain their right to vote. This photo shows women campaigning for that right.

The Changing Campaign Landscape

Election advertising is where a lot of the campaign money goes. Before the invention of television, politicians relied mainly on newspapers and personally touring cities across the country to reach out to voters. Today, however, there are more advertising options than ever before. The increased use of social media websites such as Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube, as well as news apps and targeted ads on other websites, has increasingly allowed for a higher level of engagement with voters.

The downside of this increased access to voters is that now anyone can spread misinformation in an effort to discredit other candidates and their campaigns. These efforts are known as influence campaigns, and the ease of creating fake profiles on social media has allowed them to become more common in recent years. Some people believe social media websites have a responsibility to police and take down profiles that appear to be fake. In 2018, CBS News wrote, Large internet firms are taking active steps to remove content and accounts associated with influence campaigns. Twitter, a haven for bots and trolls during the 2016 presidential campaign, recently removed 770 accounts associated with Iranian and Russian influence campaigns. It said the accounts were sharing divisive social commentary and images.

The process of campaigning continues to evolve and change with each new advance in technology or law that aims to protect the election process. Numerous guidelines and regulations are in place to ensure the transparency and fairness of the system, but corruption and fraud are still very real problems on the campaign trail. The cost and effort it takes to run a successful campaign are increasing. The results on Election Day show whether or not the work and money that went into the campaign were actually worth it.

The Ultimate Decision

American voters throughout history have helped make decisions that have had major effects on events around the world as well as in their own country. The politicians they vote into office and the political parties those politicians represent have the power to start and end wars, fight for human rights, and make other decisions that change the quality of life around the world and the environment in which people live for better or for worse.