Barack Obama, then junior United States Senator from Illinois, announced his candidacy for the presidency of the United States in Springfield, Illinois, on February 10, 2007. On August 27, 2008, he was declared nominee of the Democratic Party for the 2008 presidential election. He was the first African American in history to be nominated on a major party ticket. On August 23, 2008, Barack Obama’s campaign announced that Senator Joe Biden of Delaware would be the Vice Presidential nominee.
Jon A. Husted (born August 25, 1967) is an American politician of the Republican Party who currently serves as Ohio Secretary of State. Previously, he was a member of the Ohio Senate, representing the 6th district (portions of Montgomery County). He also previously served as a member of the Ohio House of Representatives from 2001 to 2009 and Speaker of the House from 2005 to 2009. He was elected Ohio Secretary of State on November 2, 2010, defeating Democratic candidate, Franklin County, Ohio Clerk of Courts Maryellen O’Shaughnessy.
An election is a formal decision-making process by which a population chooses an individual to hold public office. Elections have been the usual mechanism by which modern representative democracy has operated since the 17th century. Elections may fill offices in the legislature, sometimes in the executive and judiciary, and for regional and local government. This process is also used in many other private and business organizations, from clubs to voluntary associations and corporations.
In California, a ballot proposition is a proposed law that is submitted to the electorate for approval in a direct vote (or plebiscite). It may take the form of a constitutional amendment or an ordinary statute. A ballot proposition may be proposed by the State Legislature or by a petition signed by members of the public under the initiative system. In California a vote on a measure referred to voters by the legislature is a mandatory referendum; a vote to veto a law that has already been adopted by the legislature is an optional referendum or “people’s veto”; the process of proposing laws by petition is the initiative.
An election exit poll is a poll of voters taken immediately after they have exited the polling stations. Unlike an opinion poll, which asks whom the voter plans to vote for or some similar formulation, an exit poll asks whom the voter actually voted for. A similar poll conducted before actual voters have voted is called an entrance poll. Pollsters usually private companies working for newspapers or broadcasters conduct exit polls to gain an early indication as to how an election has turned out, as in many elections the actual result may take hours or even days to count.
Electronic voting (also known as e-voting) is a term encompassing several different types of voting, embracing both electronic means of casting a vote and electronic means of counting votes.
Guy Fawkes (13 April 1570 31 January 1606), also known as Guido Fawkes, the name he adopted while fighting for the Spanish in the Low Countries, was a member of a group of provincial English Catholics who planned the failed Gunpowder Plot of 1605.
Barack Hussein Obama II (i/b??r??k hu??se?n o??b??m?/; born August 4, 1961) is the 44th and current President of the United States. He is the first African American to hold the office.
A straw poll or straw vote is a vote with nonbinding results. Straw polls provide dialogue among movements within large groups. In meetings subject to rules of order, impromptu straw polls often are taken to see if there is enough support for an idea to devote more meeting time to it, and (when not a secret ballot) for the attendees to see who is on which side of a question. However, Robert’s Rules of Order prohibits straw polls, calling them “meaningless and dilatory” because they subvert the deliberative charge of deliberative bodies. Among political bodies, straw polls often are scheduled for events at which many people interested in the polling question can be expected to vote. Sometimes polls conducted without ordinary voting controls in place (i.e., on an honor system, such as in online polls) are also called “straw polls”.
Charles D. “Chuck” Pagano (born October 2, 1960) is an American football coach and former player. He is currently the head coach for the Indianapolis Colts of the National Football League (NFL), a position he assumed in January 2012. Pagano has previously served as the defensive coordinator of the Baltimore Ravens in 2011. He is the brother of San Diego Chargers defensive coordinator John Pagano.
