Election Merch Kaliedescope

Supporters show their enthusiasm for their favorite candidates with pins, shirts, signs and more.

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Snapshot of youth supporters

Check out presidential candidates reaching out to young voters across the country.

Face-off '08

In our media saturated culture, nothing is sacred. Everything--from the LAPD to Britney Spears' choice in underwear--can be scrutinized.

This is especially true for the major presidential candidates. Sarcasm has never felt so patriotic.

Our apologies to McCain fans, but it would be like shooting very slow fish in a very small barrel to include him here. We respect Mr. McCain and his courage through adverse times and his noble, wizened jowels.

The faces of presidential speeches

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Clinton supporters cheering when they watched on a big monitor that Clinton won California.

How the heck do the primaries work?!

I kid you not, I just googled Primaries for Dummies. I am officially no longer in denial. I DO NOT UNDERSTAND THE PRIMARIES. There, I admitted it. I feel like I am declaring my stupidity and shunning myself into some inept-voter oblivion. But judging by several conversations with fellow students, I doubt I'm alone in my confusion. How the heck do the primaries work?! And...please, somebody tell me what the hell a super delegate is (I have an image in my mind of a delegate wearing a blue spandex suit and red cape flying through the air with a giant pencil in hand, thrusting forward to go vote...not the most appetizing image).

I thought that my "primaries for dummies" search would bring me to some site that would explain the process in clear, layman’s terms and make me feel pathetic for not understanding before. But, I was wrong. After scouring the internet, I have concluded that the primaries are just ridiculously confusing! However, since I have done all the investigating, I will do my best to summarize my findings.

Ok...here we go.

The number of delegates a state gets is based BOTH on the population AND the number of registered voters. The equation gets complicated. Look at the table below to see the breakdown. And if you don't believe it's confusing,
Check out this LA Times article called Formula on delegates may muddy the field in California primary - it will confirm that confusion is justified.


Now...how do the candidates win a state?

Both parties do things differently...

For the Democrats the percentage of the votes a candidate gets corresponds to percentage of delegates the candidate wins. For example, consider a state with 20 delegates at a democratic convention with three candidates. If candidate "A" received 70% of all caucus and primary votes, candidate "B" 20% and candidate "C" 10%, candidate "A" would get 14 delegates, candidate "B" would get 4 delegates and candidate "C" would get 2 delegates.

For some states, republicans use a "winner takes all" approach. Which ever candidate gets the most votes wins all the delegates in that state.

Now...what does it mean to win a delegate?

Most delegates are required to vote for the candidate who won in their district. Which means, that the delegate votes will reflect the same percentage of the votes the candidate won (same example as above). However, there are some delegates who are not legally bound to vote the same way.

Duh da da da...Enter Super delegates

Super delegates are current elected office holders (congress, governors, or those with other substantial roles) who aren't bound to vote the same way at the party convention. They were created in 1980 to give party officials the power to shift who earns the ticket(otherwise the primaries would basically be the final word). They also are allowed to vote for candidates that aren't even on the ballot. Weird, I know.

So what does this all mean? Do the primaries decide which candidate will get the party nomination?

Well, you would think! But no. That's not how it works in the wacky world of the primaries. What ultimately decides which candidate will win the party ticket is the party convention. Generally, the person who wins the primaries wins the ticket. But, there is no rule! The party could ultimately choose someone different (although they probably won't).

FACT:

THE PRIMARIES ARE WIERD, WACKY, HARD TO UNDERSTAND POLITICAL SHINANIGANS!!

Anyways... the democratic national convention will decide who wins the democratic ticket. The convention will be in Denver, CO August 25-28 (ahhh...you mean we have to wait that long, listen to all that boring, endless analysis? Yes. You do.) It is usually earlier, but they are postponing it until after the Olympics.

HA HA republicans. You have to wait too! Even longer! The republican national convention will be in Saint Paul, MN September 1-4.

Supa, Dupa.

SUPER TUESDAY in the life of a USC grad student:

This is a record of how Chris Nelson's day unfolded, as he struggled with the decision, tried to make sense of those over-hyped California ballot propositions, hounded his friends for their opinions, took pictures, voted, shot time-lapse video from his rooftop, and wandered around his neighborhood. Super Tuesday, indeed.

7:45 am:
My alarm goes off. First thought in my head: I hate my goddamn alarm. Second thought: It’s Super Tuesday and I still don’t know who the hell I’m voting for. Snooze.

7:50 am:
Still hate my alarm. Still don’t know who I’m voting for. Snooze.

7:55 am:
I have to find an alarm with a 10 minute snooze. I also have to get up and move my car from a meter spot. Is anyone campaigning against the L.A. County Parking Mafia?

8:15 am:
Back in bed. Too much work for school, need to hide from it for a while longer. Under covers. Wifey comes in and laughs at me. She’s Canadian and so can’t vote but has been a Hillary supporter from Day One. Why is the choice so obvious to foreigners? “It’s obvious to anyone with a brain,” she retorts. Ouch. I’m positive her tone had nothing to do with the fact that I had just crawled back into bed as she was leaving for work.

10:30 am:
The stress of all my work, of thinking about going from Hollywood to USC to Studio City to USC to Hollywood throughout the course of an 8 am to 10 pm day while fighting a cold on top of the weight of my impending civic duty was enough to finally chase me out of bed in a panic. Is there such a thing as pity for a man who wakes up at 10:30 am on a Tuesday? Worth a shot.

10:55 am:
Make some coffee. Fire off some emails. The wheels are turning. I start bombarding my friends with IMs to see if/how they have voted. I get wildly different versions of the same response.

11:15 am:
I check Facebook. People’s status messages are rife with Super Tuesday slant. From the benign “Get out and vote” to many more specific messages in favor of Obama. The manifestations of a) heavy interest among the under-thirty voting bloc and b) the overwhelming support for Obama among those people are abundant. I’m actually starting to think for the first time that he can really pull this off.

11:30 am:
Stupid California ballot propositions. If I see another sad, disenfranchised American Indian on TV standing in front of a corn field with his distraught compatriots…

11:45 am:
I tell my Hillary-hating friend Max that I am leaning toward Obama. He tells me that “twenty years from now, they won’t stone you.” I knew I was in this for something.

12:00 pm:
That’s it. Going to the L.A. Times website. Check their positions on the Props. Voting how they tell me to. Am I a sheep? An irresponsible citizen of a democracy taking my civic duty lightly? Perhaps. As I try to find impartial information from other sources, I hear a story on KCRW (L.A.’s NPR affiliate) about how the ballot measures in this state are completely out of hand as vehicles for special interest groups and lobbyists to covertly advance their positions. Going with The Times.

3:00 pm:
The deed is done. I woke up in a fog of cold virus, lack of sleep, and indecision. By 3 pm though I was convinced that I was part of something bigger, something meaningful, significant, a watermark in American history, something people will study with fervor for years to come. Just as I had seen all over USC campus the previous week, Obama was everywhere. At least in my universe. The notion that my few square blocks of campus and Hollywood are a microcosmic representation of the United States is far-stretched at best. But it sure as hell seemed that way.

3:30 pm:
Driving in my car to Culver City for a different assignment: a ride-along with Culver City police for my reporting class beat. See how cops spend Super Tuesday.

(turns out it’s busting 27-year-old, Jaguar driving, shoplifting parolees at Target, which puts a whole new spin on the epic sense of “hope” everyone is experiencing just because a few people get up and talk about how we can change pretty much everything that’s wrong with our country today by casting a vote. Hanging with cops brought the cynicism back full-force. Go figure.)

As I’m driving, I hear that Obama has won Georgia. An African-American dominated vote, but nevertheless, the first called victory of Super Tuesday goes to my choice. My man. The man with the plan.

10:00 pm:
After six hours with the Culver City Police, I am exhausted and greased from all the buttering up they do even to a measely student journalist. Don’t get me wrong. They were extremely nice. But I’m constantly in awe of how I’ve gotten by far the friendliest responses from the police when city councilmembers and supervisors won’t give me the time of day. Hell, a contractor won’t even call me back, but the cops took me out for a bbq dinner. I left trying to figure out which way was up. But that’s another story…

10:05 pm:
DAMMIT. Dammit dammit dammit. Clinton won California? How are the calling it with only 35 percent of the polls reporting? Absentee ballots? Something is messed up here. People casting votes months ago when McCain was on his last leg, Giuliani was the front-runner, and Obama was a blip on the 2008 radar that had a Hillary-supporting nation wondering why he just doesn’t wait another eight years. It felt like a sledgehammer to the temple. How could the progressive stronghold of the U.S. vote overwhelmingly in favor of the establishment? Or was I just bamboozled and lashing out at myself for taking the bait?

10:15 pm:
I call a few people. Calm down a bit. It’s sinking in. If this were the Republican primary, it would have been a Hillary slaughterhouse, but thanks to the proportional distribution of delegates, Obama is less than 100 shy of her count. I didn’t even know I was voting for the guy as of this morning, yet once the ballot was cast, I have felt such an emotional attachment to the cause. A large portion was probably personal validation, but hope is a strong word. Audacious even. (wink!)

Hope does cast a spell. A potent one. When Obama speaks, style is the substance. The thought of having someone so inspirational, so dynamic, such a poet of the public address, had become a sort of spiritual elixir. I know all of his supporters’ fingers are secretly crossed that he will have the acumen to wisely choose cabinet occupants should he get elected president. No one is entirely sure who his close friends and cohorts are— but as that presidential figurehead… man would he be awesome!

Turns out nothing was decided on Super Tuesday (except maybe that I will never shoplift at a Target). The choice for the Democratic nomination is out of my hands. Strange thing about this democracy of ours. It’s so easy to get charged up by enacting our most basic of civic rights. It’s stressful even. Especially when it all ended with a whimper and not a bang.

Voters Go On Record—Anecdotes and Empowerment

“Yes, I was enthusiastic because it was my first time voting. It was exciting. I was kind of nervous; I didn’t want to do it wrong. But when I was done, I felt accomplished. I did something grown-up and participated in something special.”

Justine Garcia, Junior, Policy Planning and Development

"It took me all of about 30 seconds. I spent the morning reading up on the propositions, researching and figuring out my S's from my elbows. So I got in the booth...and I totally forgot. I froze up. I had to pull out my sample ballot to remember."

Mickey Hirano Culross, 41, Sports Editor Rafu Shimpo newspaper

Dan Rather broadcasts from the USC Annenberg School of Communication

Students, eager to learn from highly respected journalist Dan Rather, got their opportunity on Monday and Tuesday as he held a question and answer session and broadcasted live from the Annenberg east lobby. Rather, who has covered the presidential elections since 1952, discussed the current political climate, which he expressed as an exciting time for politics. While he did not endorse any canidate, he did draw comparisons between Sen. Barack Obama and former national leaders such as President John F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King, Jr. On Tuesday night, Rather broadcasted for five hours covering the primaries as the votes came in. To learn more about his visit click here.

Super Tuesday slide show

Want to see the voting process many students took on Super Tuesday at the USC Catholic Center off University Ave.?

Paper ballots gliche in some places, not others

By John Legittino

On Record On Super Tuesday

Charlie Wu, current chair of the board of CAUSE, thinks the democratic front-runner after today's primaries will be determined based on the age of the voters:


“I think it depends on what age group turns out. I assume the older voters that remember fondly Bill Clinton in the 90’s will vote for Hillary. I think the younger people will vote for Obama.”


Gavin Hachiye Wasserman, president of the Japanese American Republicans, is sold on the overall voter enthusiasm being fueled in large part to an emphatic youth movement. He only wishes people got as pumped up for elections as they do for that other recent cultural tradition:


“It would be great if people were always as hyped for an election as they are for the Super Bowl. The people of the United States have died for our democracy it deserves this kind of attention.”

Early morning campaigning seems slow

So the original first post of the day was going to be an interview with Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger as he cast his vote in West L.A. and proceeded to endorse John McCain. I left my house at 6:30 for an 8:00 a.m. press opportunity. by 8:30, I was still miles away, caught up in the swarm of Angelenos making their way to work. I have never in my life seen more congestion on the freeways and side streets.
However amid my frustration at missing such a great opportunity, I noticed that missing from the congestions were the typical signs and ralliers calling drivers to vote for their candidates.

In fact, during more than 3 hours on the road (to get to a place 12 miles away!) I saw only 4 signs, every one for democratic candidate Barack Obama- who was in Chicago at the time.

This seems rather striking that so few signs and ads have run this morning in a state widely known for it's paramount importance on the day of the presidential primary.

On a street corner near Fairfax and the I-10 Freeway, about 10 supporters stood on the corner bolstering signs. Hundreds of cars honked and drivers yelled, seemingly in support.

Here is a collection of what I saw during my failed attempt to interview Schwarzenegger.