Module 1 of 9
What an election is
An election is one of four kinds of events for one office in one jurisdiction in one year:
- Primary. A party picks its nominee. State-run, state-scheduled, rules vary by state.
- General. The nominees from each party run head-to-head; the winner takes office. Federal generals are the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November of an even year.
- Runoff. If no primary or general candidate clears the state's threshold (50% in some states), the top finishers face off again.
- Special. Mid-term vacancy (death, resignation, expulsion) triggers an off-cycle race to fill the seat for the remainder of the term.
Federal offices: president (one office, every 4 years), senator (100 offices, six-year terms, a third up every two years), representative (435 offices + 6 non-voting delegates, two-year terms, all up every two years). The two-year window between general elections is called a cycle.
What a candidate is
Someone who has raised or spent more than $5,000 toward federal office files Form 2 with the FEC and becomes a candidate. They get an FEC candidate id like H8NY15148 (the letter is the office: H=House, S=Senate, P=President). Membership in races is tracked as candidate-election rows; one candidate can run in several races over a career.
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