The Freedom Socialist Party ( FSP ) is a trotskyist and socialist feminist political party in the United States . FSP formed in 1966, when its members split from the Socialist Workers Party .
91-510: FSP views the struggles of women, people of color and sexual minorities as intrinsic to the struggle of the working class . Notable FSP members include Megan Cornish , Heidi Durham , Richard S. Fraser , and Clara Fraser . FSP has branches in the United States , as well as Australia , England , Germany and New Zealand . FSP is affiliated with Radical Women , a socialist feminist organization. The immediate forerunner of FSP
182-513: A U.S. context". The term BIPOC does not appear to have originated in the Black and Indigenous American communities, as it had been adopted much more widely among white Democrats than among people of color in a 2021 national poll. Asian and Latino Americans have often been confused as to whether the term includes them. The centering of Black and Indigenous people in the acronym has been criticized as an unnecessary, unfounded, and divisive ranking of
273-508: A citizen of the United States for at least seven years, and be a (legal) inhabitant of the state they represent. Senators must be at least 30 years old, a citizen of the United States for at least nine years, and be a (legal) inhabitant of the state they represent. The president and vice president must be at least 35 years old, a natural born citizen of the United States, and a resident in the United States for at least fourteen years. It
364-461: A few local elections. Following the 2020 United States presidential election , amidst disputes of its outcome , as a rationale behind litigation demanding a halt to official vote counting in some areas, allegations were made that vote counting is offshored . Former Trump Administration official Chris Krebs , head of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) during
455-578: A greatly expanded understanding of and attention to women's emancipation , and urged the anti-war movement to support the socialist, anti-colonial aims of the Vietnamese Revolution . FSP became a pole of attraction for Seattle leftists opposed to the SWP's internal politics and established a home at Freeway Hall. The party formed Radical Women with the dual goal of building a revolutionary socialist feminist organization and teaching women
546-645: A joint ticket and in some states separately, some separately in different electoral cycles. The governors of the territories of American Samoa , Guam , the Northern Mariana Islands , Puerto Rico and the United States Virgin Islands are also elected. In some states, executive positions such as Attorney General and Secretary of State are also elected offices. All members of state legislatures and territorial jurisdiction legislatures are elected. In some states, members of
637-400: A pamphlet critical of LaRouche's ideology and political history. The FEC found LaRouche's complaint to be without merit and dismissed it. Progressive Era Repression and persecution Anti-war and civil rights movements Contemporary FSP is a Trotskyist revolutionary socialist organization. FSP leaders Clara Fraser and Gloria Martin hoped to build a Leninist party that
728-466: A particular political party. The United States Constitution has never formally addressed the issue of political parties. The Founding Fathers such as Alexander Hamilton and James Madison did not support domestic political factions at the time the Constitution was written. In addition, the first president of the United States , George Washington , was not a member of any political party at
819-580: A party candidate in advance, electors that vote against the popular vote in their state are called faithless electors , and occurrences are rare. State law regulates how states cast their electoral college votes. In all states except Maine and Nebraska , the candidate that wins the most votes in the state receives all its electoral college votes (a "winner takes all" system). From 1972 in Maine, and from 1996 in Nebraska, two electoral votes are awarded based on
910-550: A party may vote in that party's primary elections ( see below ). Declaring a party affiliation is never required. Some states, including Georgia , Michigan , Minnesota , Virginia , Wisconsin , and Washington , practice non-partisan registration. Federal law prohibits noncitizens from voting in federal elections. As of 2024, 7 state constitutions specifically state that "only" a citizen can vote in elections at any level in that state: Alabama, Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Louisiana, North Dakota, and Ohio. Voter ID laws in
1001-698: A political act of naming themselves. In the twenty-first century, use of the term and the categorization continued to proliferate: for example, the Joint Council of Librarians of Color (JCLC), a recurring conference of the American Library Association , which uses the "of color" designation for its five ethnic affiliate associations. They include: the Black Caucus of the American Library Association ,
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#17327726546591092-529: A presidential endorsement and instead suggested voters spoil their ballots by writing-in "free Palestine." In 1991, the Seattle FSP ran two members for Seattle City Council , who campaigned on guaranteed income for families living in poverty, community control of the police, and domestic partnership rights for same-sex couples . Person of color The term " person of color " ( pl. : people of color or persons of color ; abbreviated POC )
1183-502: A referendum on the sitting president or incumbent party's performance. Ballot access refers to the laws which regulate under what conditions access is granted for a candidate or political party to appear on voters' ballots. Each state has its own ballot access laws to determine who may appear on ballots and who may not. According to Article I, Section 4, of the United States Constitution, the authority to regulate
1274-421: A return to "POC" for its emphasis on coalition-building, while others call for a contextual approach that names "the groups actually included and centered in the arguments themselves". The term has also been criticized for being redundant. Elections in the United States [REDACTED] [REDACTED] In the politics of the United States , elections are held for government officials at
1365-427: A signed application. Usually such agents are family members or persons from the same residence. 13 states neither enable nor prohibit ballot collection as a matter of law. Among those that allow it, 12 have limits on how many ballots an agent may collect. Americans living outside the United States, including active duty members of the armed forces stationed outside of their state of residency, may register and vote under
1456-527: A single day throughout the country; Article I established that elections for Congressional offices, however, can be held at different times. Congressional and presidential elections take place simultaneously every four years, and the intervening Congressional elections, which take place every two years, are called midterm elections . The constitution states that members of the United States House of Representatives must be at least 25 years old,
1547-459: A specific local office may be held at the same time as either the presidential, midterm, or off-year elections. Many Native American tribal governmental positions, including executive and legislative positions, are typically filled by election. In some cases, tribal citizens elect council members who elect from among their body a chief executive. The number of positions and titles used vary from one tribal government to another, but common titles for
1638-593: A top priority for socialist organizations. And the Kirk-Kaye tendency claimed that the SWP was undemocratic. FSP formed in 1966, when its members split from the Socialist Workers Party . The party's Seattle branch, with support from individuals in other cities, split off from the SWP over what it described as the SWP's entrenched opportunism and undemocratic methods. FSP advocated for class solidarity of Black and white workers, called for
1729-443: A two-year term in single-seat constituencies . House of Representatives elections are held every two years on the first Tuesday after November 1 in even years. Special House elections can occur between if a member dies or resigns during a term. House elections are first-past-the-post elections that elect a Representative from each of 435 House districts that cover the United States. The non-voting delegates of Washington, D.C. , and
1820-423: A voter must request an absentee ballot before the election occurs. In Colorado , Hawaii , Oregon , Utah and Washington state , all ballots are delivered through the mail; in many other states there are counties or certain small elections where everyone votes by mail. As of July 2020, 26 states allow designated agents to collect and submit ballots on behalf of another voter, whose identities are specified on
1911-469: Is "socialist-feminist" in ideology and practice. FSP has fielded electoral candidates in the United States for local , state , and federal offices. FSP candidates usually run as official FSP candidates. No FSP candidate has yet won an election. In 2016 , FSP critically endorsed Jeff Mackler of Socialist Action for president. In 2020 , FSP again critically endorsed Jeff Mackler of Socialist Action for president. In 2024 , FSP declined to make
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#17327726546592002-789: Is a formal process where voters can cast their ballots prior to the official Election Day. Early voting in person is allowed in 47 states and in Washington, D.C. , with no excuse required. Only Alabama, New Hampshire and Oregon do not allow early voting, while some counties in Idaho do not allow it. The earliest voting in the US was through paper ballots that were hand-counted. By the late 1800s, paper ballots printed by election officials were nearly universal. By 1980, 10% of American voters used paper ballots that were counted by hand, which dropped below 1% by 2008. Mechanical voting machines were first used in
2093-461: Is estimated to be 5.3 million. Some states also have legacy constitutional statements barring those legally declared incompetent from voting; such references are generally considered obsolete and are being considered for review or removal where they appear. About 4.3 million American citizens that reside in Washington, D.C. , Puerto Rico and other U.S. territories do not have the same level of federal representation as those that reside in
2184-415: Is involved). Candidates formally manage the campaign and fund raising organization independent of the party. The primary elections in the main parties are organized by the states, who also register the party affiliation of the voters (this also makes it easier to gerrymander the congressional districts). The party is thus little more than a campaign organization for the main elections. However, elections in
2275-531: Is primarily used to describe any person who is not considered " white ". In its current meaning, the term originated in, and is primarily associated with, the United States; however, since the 2010s, it has been adopted elsewhere in the Anglosphere (often as person of colour ), including relatively limited usage in the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, Ireland, South Africa, and Singapore. In
2366-543: Is set out in the constitution and also regulated at state level. The constitution states that suffrage cannot be denied on grounds of race or color , sex , or age for citizens eighteen years or older . Beyond these basic qualifications, it is the responsibility of state legislatures to regulate voter eligibility. Some states ban convicted criminals, especially felons , from voting for a fixed period of time or indefinitely. The number of American adults who are currently or permanently ineligible to vote due to felony convictions
2457-593: Is sometimes applied to other groups in Southern Africa , such as the Basters of Namibia . The American Heritage Guide to Contemporary Usage and Style cites usage of "people of colour" as far back as 1796. It was initially used to refer to light-skinned people of mixed African and European heritage. French colonists used the term gens de couleur ("people of color") to refer to people of mixed African and European ancestry who were freed from slavery in
2548-400: Is the responsibility of state legislatures to regulate the qualifications for a candidate appearing on a ballot paper, although in order to get onto the ballot, a candidate must often collect a legally defined number of signatures or meet other state-specific requirements. The president and the vice president are elected together in a presidential election. It is an indirect election , with
2639-781: The American Indian Library Association , the Asian Pacific American Librarians Association , the Chinese American Librarians Association , and REFORMA: The National Association to Promote Library & Information Services to Latinos and the Spanish Speaking . According to Stephen Satris of Clemson University , in the United States there are two main racial divides . The first is the "black–white" delineation;
2730-618: The LGBT community, labor unionists , feminists , people of color , Jews , and civil libertarians . UFAF took the lead in mobilizing against neo-Nazis in the Pacific Northwest in the 1980s and 1990s. In 2003, Lyndon LaRouche filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission that FSP's Red Letter Press and its managing editor, Helen Gilbert, had violated campaign finance laws. Gilbert had issued
2821-485: The Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act (UOCAVA). Almost half the states require these ballots to be returned by mail. Other states allow mail along with some combination of fax , or email ; four states allow a web portal. A significant measure to prevent some types of fraud has been to require the voter's signature on the outer envelope, which is compared to one or more signatures on file before taking
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2912-589: The federal , state , and local levels. At the federal level, the nation's head of state , the president , is elected indirectly by the people of each state , through an Electoral College . Today, these electors almost always vote with the popular vote of their state. All members of the federal legislature, the Congress , are directly elected by the people of each state. There are many elected offices at state level, each state having at least an elective governor and legislature . There are also elected offices at
3003-555: The state level. All U.S. states except North Dakota require that citizens who wish to vote be registered . In many states, voter registration takes place at the county or municipal level. Traditionally, voters had to register directly at state or local offices to vote, but in the mid-1990s, efforts were made by the federal government to make registering easier, in an attempt to increase turnout. The National Voter Registration Act of 1993 (the "Motor Voter" law) required state governments that receive certain types of federal funding to make
3094-462: The state supreme court and other members of the state judiciary are elected. Proposals to amend the state constitution are also placed on the ballot in some states. As a matter of convenience and cost saving, elections for many of these state and local offices are held at the same time as either the federal presidential or midterm elections. There are a handful of states, however, that instead hold their elections during odd-numbered " off years ." At
3185-447: The 1970s, the final major voting technology for the US was developed, the DRE voting machine . In 1980, less than 1% of ballots were cast with DRE. Prevalence grew to 10% in 2000, then peaked at 38% in 2006. Because DREs are fully digital, with no paper trail of votes, backlash against them caused prevalence to drop to 33% in 2010. The voting equipment used by a given US county is related to
3276-627: The 50 U.S. states. These areas only have non-voting members in the U.S. House of Representatives and no representation in the U.S. Senate. Citizens in the U.S. territories are also not represented in the Electoral College and therefore cannot vote for the president. Those in Washington, D.C. are permitted to vote for the president because of the Twenty-third Amendment . While the federal government has jurisdiction over federal elections, most election laws are decided at
3367-699: The Americas. In South Carolina and other parts of the Deep South , this term was used to distinguish between slaves who were mostly " black " or " Negro " and free people who were primarily " mulatto " or " mixed race ". After the American Civil War , "colored" was used as a label almost exclusively for black Americans, but the term eventually fell out of favor by the mid-20th century. Although American activist Martin Luther King Jr. used
3458-506: The Democratic Party. State law and state constitutions , controlled by state legislatures regulate elections at state level and local level. Various officials at state level are elected. Since the separation of powers applies to states as well as the federal government, state legislatures and the executive (the governor) are elected separately. Governors and lieutenant governors are elected in all states, in some states on
3549-590: The House, combined with the general deficiencies of the first-past-the-post voting system, and divisions inherent in the design of the Senate and of the Electoral College, result in a discrepancy between the percentage of popular support for various political parties and the actual level of the parties' representation. In particular, gerrymandering has been found to benefit the Republican Party more than it does
3640-452: The Latino population itself, and for this reason, some commentators have found the term misleading. The acronym BIPOC, referring to "black, indigenous, (and) people of color", first appeared around 2013. By June 2020, it was, according to Sandra Garcia of The New York Times , "ubiquitous in some corners of Twitter and Instagram", as racial justice awareness grew in the United States in
3731-598: The President. As the redistricting commissions of states are often partisan, districts are often drawn which benefit incumbents. An increasing trend has been for incumbents to have an overwhelming advantage in House elections, and since the 1994 election , an unusually low number of seats has changed hands in each election. Due to gerrymandering , fewer than 10% of all House seats are contested in each election cycle. Over 90% of House members are reelected every two years, due to lack of electoral competition. Gerrymandering of
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3822-510: The Senate seats that is up for election during a given year is known as a " class "; the three classes are staggered so that only one of the three groups is renewed every two years. Until the Seventeenth Amendment to the United States Constitution in 1913, states chose how to elect Senators, and they were often elected by state legislatures, not the electorate of states. The House of Representatives has 435 members, elected for
3913-475: The U.S. to implement measures to remediate the high number of unregistered citizens. In many states, citizens registering to vote may declare an affiliation with a political party . This declaration of affiliation does not cost money, and does not make the citizen a dues-paying member of a party. A party cannot prevent a voter from declaring his or her affiliation with them, but it can refuse requests for full membership. In some states, only voters affiliated with
4004-402: The U.S., including primary elections , the eligibility of voters (beyond the basic constitutional definition), the method of choosing presidential electors, as well as the running of state and local elections. All elections—federal, state, and local—are administered by the individual states, with many aspects of the system's operations delegated to the county or local level. Under federal law,
4095-477: The US Constitution. It is a highly decentralized system. In around half of US states, the secretary of state is the official in charge of elections; in other states it is someone appointed for the job, or a commission. It is this person or commission who is responsible for certifying, tabulating, and reporting votes for the state. Americans vote for a specific candidate instead of directly selecting
4186-577: The US in the 1892 elections in Lockport, New York . The state of Massachusetts was one of the first states to adopt lever voting machines, doing so in 1899, but the state's Supreme Judicial Court ruled their usage unconstitutional in 1907. Lever machines grew in popularity despite controversies, with about two-thirds of votes for president in the 1964 United States presidential election cast with lever machines. Lever machine use declined to about 40% of votes in 1980, then 6% in 2008. Punch card voting equipment
4277-524: The United States Constitution (1804), the runner-up in a presidential election became the vice president. Electoral College votes are cast by individual states by a group of electors; each elector casts one electoral college vote. Until the Twenty-third Amendment to the United States Constitution of 1961, citizens from the District of Columbia did not have representation in the electoral college. In modern times, with electors usually committed to vote for
4368-672: The United States are laws that require a person to provide some form of official identification before they are permitted to register to vote , receive a ballot for an election , or to actually vote in elections in the United States. Proponents of voter ID laws argue that they reduce electoral fraud while placing only little burden on voters. Critics worry the costs to voters without IDs will outweigh unclear benefits it would have on real or perceived fraud. Voters unable or unwilling to vote at polling stations on Election Day may vote via absentee ballots , depending on state law. Originally these ballots were for people who could not go to
4459-419: The United States is currently voluntary only at the federal, state and local levels. Efforts to make voting mandatory have been proposed. A number of voting methods are used within the various jurisdictions in the United States, the most common of which is the first-past-the-post system, where the highest-polling candidate wins the election. Under this system, a candidate who achieves a plurality (that is,
4550-470: The United States often do become de facto national races between the political parties. In what is known as " presidential coattails ", candidates in presidential elections usually bring out supporters who then vote for his or her party's candidates for other offices, usually resulting in the presidential winner's party gaining seats in Congress. On the other hand, midterm elections are sometimes regarded as
4641-458: The United States, emphasizes common experiences of systemic racism , which some communities have faced. The term may also be used with other collective categories of people such as "communities of color", "men of color" (MOC), "women of color" (WOC), or "librarians of color". The acronym "BIPOC" refers to "black, indigenous, and other people of color" and aims to emphasize the historic oppression of black and indigenous people. The term " colored "
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#17327726546594732-400: The United States, the term is involved in the various definitions of non-whiteness , including African Americans , Asian Americans , Native Americans , Pacific Islander Americans , multiracial Americans , and some Latino Americans , though members of these communities may prefer to view themselves through their cultural identities rather than color-related terminology. The term, as used in
4823-431: The ballot out of the envelope and counting it. Not all states have standards for signature review. There have been concerns that signatures are improperly rejected from young and minority voters at higher rates than others, with no or limited ability of voters to appeal the rejection. For other types of errors, experts estimate that while there is more fraud with absentee ballots than in-person voting, it has affected only
4914-529: The center of every contemporary racial issue", other commentators have found it problematic that the ascendancy of the term coincided with the pronounced rise in anti-Asian hate crimes during the COVID-19 pandemic . By rendering Asian Americans as an unnamed "remnant", critics argue that the acronym renders the racial discrimination they experience invisible, thereby perpetuating harmful model minority and perpetual foreigner stereotypes. Some critics advocate
5005-408: The county's historical wealth. A county's use of punch cards in the year 2000 was positively correlated with the county's wealth in 1969, when punch card machines were at their peak of popularity. Counties with higher wealth in 1989 were less likely to still use punch cards in 2000. This supports the idea that punch cards were used in counties that were well-off in the 1960s, but whose wealth declined in
5096-401: The creation of political parties, as the first-past-the-post electoral system was kept. Candidates decide to run under a party label, register to run, pay filing fees, etc. In the primary elections , the party organization stays neutral until one candidate has been elected. The platform of the party is written by the winning candidate (in presidential elections; in other elections no platform
5187-494: The discretion of the individual state and local governments, with many of these races coinciding with either presidential or midterm elections as a matter of convenience and cost saving, while other state and local races may occur during odd-numbered " off years ". The date when primary elections for federal, state, and local races occur are also at the discretion of the individual state and local governments; presidential primaries in particular have historically been staggered between
5278-749: The election, said in a December 2020 interview that, "All votes in the United States of America are counted in the United States of America." One documented trend is that in-person votes and early votes are more likely to lean to the Republican Party , while the provisional ballots, which are counted later, trend to the Democratic Party . This phenomenon is known as blue shift , and has led to situations where Republicans were winning on election night only to be overtaken by Democrats after all votes were counted. Foley did not find that mail-in or absentee votes favored either party. Early voting
5369-533: The general elections of the president and Congress occur on Election Day , the Tuesday after the first Monday of November. These federal general elections are held in even-numbered years, with presidential elections occurring every four years, and congressional elections occurring every two years. The general elections that are held two years after the presidential ones are referred to as the midterm elections . General elections for state and local offices are held at
5460-479: The individual electors). The winner of the election is the candidate with at least 270 Electoral College votes. It is possible for a candidate to win the electoral vote , and lose the (nationwide) popular vote (receive fewer votes nationwide than the second ranked candidate). This has occurred five times in US history: in 1824, 1876, 1888, 2000, and 2016. Prior to ratification of the Twelfth Amendment to
5551-579: The late 1980s and early 1990s, it was in wide circulation. Both anti-racist activists and academics sought to move the understanding of race beyond the black–white dichotomy then prevalent. The phrase "women of color" was developed and introduced for wide use by a group of black women activists at the National Women's Conference in 1977. The phrase was used as a method of communicating solidarity between non-white women that was, according to Loretta Ross , not based on "biological destiny" but instead
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#17327726546595642-430: The local level, county and city government positions are usually filled by election, especially within the legislative branch. The extent to which offices in the executive or judicial branches are elected vary from county-to-county or city-to-city. Some examples of local elected positions include sheriffs at the county level and mayors and school board members at the city level. Like state elections, an election for
5733-402: The local level, in counties , cities, towns, townships, boroughs, and villages; as well as for special districts and school districts which may transcend county and municipal boundaries. The country's election system is highly decentralized. While the U.S. Constitution does set parameters for the election of federal officials, state law, not federal, regulates most aspects of elections in
5824-497: The lowest polling candidate is eliminated, and their votes are distributed to the next preferred candidates. This process continues until one candidate achieves more than half the votes. In 2016 , Maine became the first state to adopt instant-runoff voting (known in the state as ranked-choice voting) statewide for its elections, although due to state constitutional provisions, the system is only used for federal elections and state primaries. The eligibility of an individual for voting
5915-479: The marginalization that the term was intended to counter. Other commentators state that the term "people of color" is a misnomer and an arbitrary term in which people who are white are mislabeled as people of color. People of color also encompasses various heterogeneous groups which have little in common, with some arguing that American culture as a whole does not deliberate on economic inequality or issues of class . Political scientist Angelo Falcón argues that
6006-432: The most) of vote wins. The State of Georgia uses a two-round system , where if no candidate receives a majority of votes, then there is a runoff between the two highest polling candidates. Since 2002, several cities have adopted instant-runoff voting . Voters rank the candidates in order of preference rather than voting for a single candidate. Under this system, if no candidate achieves more than half of votes cast, then
6097-441: The oppression faced by the communities of color. The acronym's purposeful and definitional assertion that the historical and present-day suffering experienced by Black and Indigenous people is more significant in kind or degree than that of other non-white groups has been described as casting communities of color in an oppression Olympics that obscures intersectional characteristics, similarities, and opportunities for solidarity in
6188-589: The organizational and leadership skills that were often denied to them in male-dominated organizations. In 1978, FSP joined the Committee for a Revolutionary Socialist Party (CRSP), an attempted united front of Trotskyist parties. In 1980, CRSP collapsed. In 1989, FSP founded the United Front Against Fascism (UFAF), an anti-fascist organization that included a broad coalition of the Left ,
6279-417: The phrase person of color to describe white Hispanic and Latino Americans and Spaniards has been criticized as inaccurate. The United States census denotes the term "Latino" as a pan-ethnic label, rather than a racial category, and although many Latinos may qualify as being "people of color", the indiscriminate labeling of all Latinos as "people of color" obscures the racial diversity that exists within
6370-686: The polling place on election day. Now some states let them be used for convenience, but state laws still call them absentee ballots. Absentee ballots can be sent and returned by mail, or requested and submitted in person, or dropped off in locked boxes. About half the states and territories allow "no excuse absentee," where no reason is required to request an absentee ballot; others require a valid reason, such as infirmity or travel. Some states let voters with permanent disabilities apply for permanent absentee voter status, and some other states let all citizens apply for permanent status, so they will automatically receive an absentee ballot for each election. Otherwise
6461-423: The proceeding decades. Counties that maintained their wealth from the 1960s onwards could afford to replace punch card machines as they fell out of favor. The United States has a presidential system of government, which means that the executive and legislature are elected separately. Article II of the United States Constitution requires that the election of the U.S. president by the Electoral College must occur on
6552-442: The second racial delineation is the one "between whites and everyone else", with whites being "narrowly construed" and everyone else being called "people of color". Because the term "people of color" includes vastly different people with only the common distinction of not being white, it draws attention to the perceived fundamental role of racialization in the United States. Joseph Tuman of San Francisco State University argues that
6643-850: The states, beginning sometime in January or February, and ending about mid-June before the November general election. The restriction and extension of voting rights to different groups has been a contested process throughout United States history. The federal government has also been involved in attempts to increase voter turnout , by measures such as the National Voter Registration Act of 1993 . The financing of elections has also long been controversial, because private sources make up substantial amounts of campaign contributions, especially in federal elections. Voluntary public funding for candidates willing to accept spending limits
6734-538: The struggle against racism. Critics argue that the systems of oppression foundational to U.S. history were not limited to the slavery and genocide suffered by Black and Indigenous Americans, but also included the Asian American and Latino American experiences of oppression under the Chinese Exclusion Act and the doctrine of manifest destiny . Noting that "Black and Indigenous people are not at
6825-424: The term "citizens of color" in 1963, the phrase in its current meaning did not catch on until the late 1970s. In the late 20th century, the term "person of color" was introduced in the United States in order to counter the condescension implied by the terms "non-white" and " minority ", and racial justice activists in the U.S., influenced by radical theorists such as Frantz Fanon , popularized it at this time. By
6916-602: The term "people of color" is attractive because it unites disparate racial and ethnic groups into a larger collective in solidarity with one another. Use of the term "person of color", especially in the United States, is often associated with the social justice movement. Style guides from the American Heritage Guide to Contemporary Usage and Style, the Stanford Graduate School of Business , and Mount Holyoke College all recommend
7007-425: The term "person of color" over other alternatives. Unlike "colored", which historically referred primarily to black people and is often considered offensive , "person of color" and its variants refer inclusively to all non-European peoples—often with the notion that there is political solidarity among them—and, according to one style guide, "are virtually always considered terms of pride and respect". Many critics of
7098-402: The term, both white and non-white, object to its lack of specificity and find the phrase racially offensive. It has been argued that the term lessens the focus on individual issues facing different racial and ethnic groups, particularly African Americans. Preserving "whiteness" as an intact category while lumping every other racial group into an indiscriminate category ("of color") replicates
7189-424: The territories of American Samoa , Guam , the Northern Mariana Islands , Puerto Rico and the United States Virgin Islands are also elected. House elections occur every two years, correlated with presidential elections or halfway through a president's term. The House delegate of Puerto Rico, officially known as the resident commissioner of Puerto Rico , is elected to a four-year term, coinciding with those of
7280-487: The time of his election or throughout his tenure as president. Furthermore, he hoped that political parties would not be formed , fearing conflict and stagnation. Nevertheless, the beginnings of the American two-party system emerged from his immediate circle of advisers, with Hamilton and Madison ending up being the core leaders in this emerging party system. Due to Duverger's law , the two-party system continued following
7371-421: The tribal government's chief executive terms include president, governor, principal chief, chair, and chief. These elections may be held in conjunction with federal, state, or local elections, but are often held independently under the authority of the tribe's office of elections. In the US, elections are actually conducted by local authorities, working under local, state, and federal law and regulation, as well as
7462-407: The use of broad terms like "person of color" is offensive because it aggregates diverse communities and projects "a false unity" that "obscure[s] the needs of Latinos and Asians". Citing the sensitivity of the issue, Falcón suggested that there should be "a national summit of Black, Latino and Asian community leaders" to discuss "how can the problem of the so-called 'black/white binary' be tackled in
7553-581: The voter registration process easier by providing uniform registration services through drivers' license registration centers, disability centers, schools, libraries, and mail-in registration. Other states allow citizens same-day registration on Election Day. An estimated 50 million Americans are unregistered. It has been reported that registering to vote poses greater obstacles for low-income citizens, racial minorities and linguistic minorities , Native Americans , and persons with disabilities . International election observers have called on authorities in
7644-474: The wake of the murder of George Floyd . The term aims to emphasize the historic oppression of black and indigenous people, which is argued to be superlative and distinctive in U.S. history at the collective level. The BIPOC Project promotes the term in order "to highlight the unique relationship to whiteness that Indigenous and Black (African Americans) people have, which shapes the experiences of and relationship to white supremacy for all people of color within
7735-569: The way it respects the diversity it ignores and helps build the broader constituency for racial social justice that is needed in the country" and to "open the way for a perhaps much-needed resetting of relations between these historically-discriminated against communities that can lead to a more useful etymology of this relationship". Comedian George Carlin described "people of color" as "an awkward, bullshit, liberal-guilt phrase that obscures meaning rather than enhancing it", adding, "What should we call white people? 'People of no color'?" The use of
7826-472: The winner being determined by votes cast by electors of the Electoral College . In modern times, voters in each state select a slate of electors from a list of several slates designated by different parties or candidates, and the electors typically promise in advance to vote for the candidates of their party (whose names of the presidential candidates usually appear on the ballot rather than those of
7917-471: The winner of the statewide election, and the rest (two in Maine and three in Nebraska) go to the highest vote-winner in each of the state's congressional districts. Congress has two chambers : the Senate and the House of Representatives. The Senate has 100 members, elected for a six-year term in dual-seat constituencies (2 from each state ), with one-third being renewed every two years. The group of
8008-607: Was developed in the 1960s, with about one-third of votes cast with punch cards in 1980. New York was the last state to phase out lever voting in response to the 2000 Help America Vote Act (HAVA), which allocated funds for the replacement of lever machine and punch card voting equipment. New York replaced its lever voting with optical scanning in 2010. In the 1960s, technology was developed that enabled paper ballots filled with pencil or ink to be optically scanned rather than hand-counted. In 1980, about 2% of votes used optical scanning; this increased to 30% by 2000 and 60% by 2008. In
8099-488: Was introduced in 1974 for presidential primaries and elections. The Federal Election Commission , created in 1975 by an amendment to the Federal Election Campaign Act , has the responsibility to disclose campaign finance information, to enforce the provisions of the law such as the limits and prohibitions on contributions, and to oversee the public funding of U.S. presidential elections. Voting in
8190-665: Was originally equivalent in use to the term "person of color" in American English , but usage of the appellation "colored" in the Southern United States gradually came to be restricted to " Negroes ", and is now considered a racial pejorative. Elsewhere in the world, and in other dialects of English , the term may have entirely different connotations, however; for example, in South Africa, " Coloureds " refers to multiple multiracial ethnic groups and
8281-574: Was the Kirk-Kaye tendency within the Socialist Workers Party (SWP), led by Richard S. Fraser (Kirk) and Clara Fraser (Kaye) who were then married. The Kirk-Kaye tendency primarily disagreed with SWP leadership on three points: The Kirk-Kaye tendency supported revolutionary integrationism , in contrast to the SWP's support for Black nationalism and the Nation of Islam . The Kirk-Kaye tendency argued that socialist feminism must be
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