General Elections for President: Parties and Processes

The Vice Presidency

William Galston writes:

In 2010, political scientists Bernard Grofman and Reuben Kline assessed the impact of vice-presidential selection on voters’ choices in the general election. In the 11 presidential contests from 1968 to 2008, they found, the net effect was at most 1% of the popular vote.

...

In a similar vein, the Gallup Organization examined the vice-presidential debates in elections from 1976 to 2008. The median effect for both parties was 1 percentage point. Public support for the Republican ticket in 2008 fell from 43% before the Sarah Palin- Joe Biden debate to 42% afterward. Support for the Republican ticket in 1988 actually rose to 49% from 47% after that year’s vice-presidential debate, in which the veteran congressman Bentsen was widely perceived as having drubbed the young senator from Indiana, Dan Quayle.

The Overstated Home-State Effect (and a more recent article here)

Electoral College

• Mechanics (and the selection of California electors)
• Map
• There is no blue wall

The Obama Legacy Report

• Registration: Register unregistered supporters to expand the electorate and reregister supporters who may have moved at their new addresses. The registration program included tactics such as voter registration weeks of action, hot spot registration canvasses, and GottaRegister.com
• Persuasion: Persuade voters who were likely to vote but were undecided on who to support. The persuasion program included tactics such as neighbor-to-neighbor conversations, messaging trainings, surrogate events, press articles, television ads, and online efforts such as the Truth Team.
• Turnout: Educate supporters on where, when and how to vote, and motivate them to cast their ballots. The turnout program focused on early vote and Get Out the Vote (GOTV) and included tactics such as commitment cards, early vote events and rallies, and GOTV canvasses