Difference Between Partisan And Nonpartisan Elections

In America the center beating heart of politics is elections. Without elections the whole political process would be totally different and far from democratic. Elections is where political government officials careers start and end. The fact that they are so important, means they are the most deeply focused on and criticized on their organization. This paper will focus on the debate of partisan or nonpartisan elections, and prominent voter factors. In order to understand the different ideas of how elections should be ran, and how elections are affected by the people. The main two types of elections are partisan or nonpartisan, and these elections types vary from state to state or even city to city. The difference between to two is that in a partisan election the candidates will make their party preference public and will use the party as a tool. The parties sometimes become the main force pushing a candidate' chances the victory. A great example of this would be when Orlando Sanchez was running for mayor of Houston and
"President Bush endorsed Mr. Sanchez, while his parents, former President George Bush and Barbara Bush, who are Houston residents, are appearing in campaign advertisements on Mr. Sanchez's behalf" (Yardley Pg. 1). In a nonpartisan election, the process is very different before voting day. Candidates running in a nonpartisan election do not have the party to use as a tool. They focus more on private entities for funding and endorsements, and the candidate has to work harder to spread his or her vision to the people. In addition, the national party committee leaders lose the ability to strategically influence small elections to have long-term outcomes that can affect the whole country. Both types of elections are used in the United States but they are often debated about which on is the best. As stated before, a large aspect of the partisan election is that the parties can work with specific candidates to help them win. They do this so that a party can try to have as much control in different states thought out the whole country. This way when it comes time to make laws and bills the strongest party can have an easier time actually passing them. A strong argument made by supporters of partisan elections is that candidates have a strong ability to rally voters together and spread their vision. In the same way, parties can help educate voters about candidate's plans that way they truly know whom their voting, instead of just letting the incumbent win again. Just like in the example when Orlando Sanchez ran against Lee P. Brown for mayor of Houston where parties played a major role. Nonpartisan elections supporters on the other hand do not like the influence of parties in the process.
The Bloomberg administration says the nonpartisan "system would draw more people to the polls, increase the number of minority group members in elective posts and weaken the iron fist of party bosses" (Hicks Pg. 1). In some nonpartisan systems the elections system has two rounds to allow people to run regardless of their party affiliation. Then the second round is the top two candidates. Which is different from partisan election systems that tend to focus on the two major parties from the start. Jacksonville Florida is often used of an example of nonpartisan where the city "moved toward nonpartisan races in the early 1990's partly to cut the costs of conducting runoff elections, which resulted frequently from party primaries" (Hicks Pg. 2). Today both systems are used but in the end, both elections solely relay on what the voters
want. As expected voters have the ability to change elections completely on any particular hot issues. The voters themselves have particular noticeable factors that need to be paid attention too also. A large factor is how race plays a part in the decision making process while voting. Certain races tend to collaborate with specific political parties or political beliefs. A very generic version of this is that Whites tend to be Republican and Latinos Blacks tend to be Democrat. This theme has been shown in voting for hot issues. For example, "Based on National Election Pool (NEP) estimates, 70 percent of blacks cast their ballot in favor of Proposition 8, while 49 percent of whites, 53 percent of Latinos, 49 percent of Asians, and 51 percent from those of another racial/ethnic identity supported a ban on gay marriage" (Abrajano Pg. 923). These types of factors need to be paid attention to because they can change any type of election. For every aspect of American politics, elections will always be the most important period. It is where everything starts or ends whether it be an actual official or a certain issue. They are extremely important because the election process is what withholds America's democratic values in the government. They will always be debated on how they should be properly ran because someone will always want more power. Partisan and nonpartisan elections both have their pros and cons for what they offer the people and the candidate. What needs to be paid attention to are the factors that the actual population brings to the table. These are significant because these factors can affect any election type and that is why political studies are conducted on the population.