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Exclusive report about US Senate elections â€“ PHOTOSESSION

Exclusive report about US Senate elections â€“ <font color=red> PHOTOSESSION</font>

02 November 2010 11:24 (UTC +04:00)

Washington. Viktoria Dementyeva â€“ APA. The US Congressional mid-term elections will be held today. APAâ€™s correspondent prepared a report on elections from Missouri.

Not only presidents, members of the Congress and Senate, but also police chiefs, judges, members of the management boards of schools are elected in the US. The voter turnout is very low in America. Only 40 percent of the eligible voters are predicted to participate in the elections today. High voter turnout is recorded only in the presidential elections. According to the statistics, more active voters live in Florida, Nevada and California.

-Who will win in the elections to the Senate?

-Most experts consider that the republicans will win most of the seats in the Senate. Director of research center at the American University James Thurber also thinks so. He notes that President Barack Obamaâ€™s ratings has fallen from 61 percent to 44 percent in the past two years, this factor will influence the elections to the Senate.

-US election system

-There are some differences between the US election system and Azerbaijanâ€™s election system. For example, every city in Missouri has its Board of Election. 50 percent of the boardâ€™s budget is formed at the cost of the city budget, 50 percent of the constituencyâ€™s budget. Such boards are subordinated to the Secretary of Missouri. Another different point is that candidates continue their campaign on the voting day. The campaign is even more active that day, but there is only one restriction â€“ on the voting day campaign materials of the candidates â€“ booklets and brochures can be distributed 8m far from the polling station. Complaints against the violation of these rules are sent to the Ethics Commission of the state, not to the Election Board. The Board of Election is responsible only for the administrative side of the elections, this body organizes the voting process, prepares voters lists.

-The Americans are free to choose their voting methods

-Early voting has widely spread in the US. The citizens, who want to vote early, must give an excuse, such trip, disease etc. If the citizenâ€™s excuse is accepted by the Board of Election, he/she can come to the Board of Election and vote anytime. The voter can vote by ballot paper, or by electronic machine.

Director of Cansas City Board of Election Shelley McThomas says that 90 percent of the voters prefer vote by ballot papers, 10 percent by electronic machine. Most of those who use electronic voting machine are persons with disabilities.

Internet voting is not practised in Missouri. Only in exceptional cases, e.g. if the US citizens participate in the military operations in another country and there is little chance that their ballot papers will reach the Board of Election in time, they are allowed to vote online. Shelley McThomas says online voting was applied in the Hawaiian Islands last year and was a success.

-Problem of votersâ€™ lists

-Director of the Board of Election says one of the problems of the board is the registration of voters. Citizens often change their residence in America. One of the main tasks of the Board is to reregister the voters. There is a card index in the Board of Election containing information about every voter.

For example, the Kansas City Board of Election Commissioners is maintaining more than 200 000 printed forms with the votersâ€™ names, addresses and signature photos. It needs signature photos for probability of early voting. In this case, the voter has to sign a ballot sent via mail. Life sentenced or sentenced for grave crimes in the Stateâ€™s territory have no right to vote.

-Voting day is a working day

-Usually elections are held in the United States on Tuesday. It is an ordinary working day in the country. The polling stations are opened at 6.00 am and closed at 7.00 pm. Therefore Americans prefer to vote in the morning. The citizens have a right to ask leave for two hours to participate in the voting process.

-How is PR campaign in the United States?

-PR campaign in the United States radically differs from the post-Soviet election campaigns. It involves numerous volunteers. This is unpaid work and sometimes organizers and managers of the candidateâ€™s elections campaign are working voluntarily. One of the managers of the Kansas City Republican staff says that mostly nominees for Senators and Governors use services of PR agencies. Such services are not used in less important elections. There is no concrete date for the elections campaign. Sometimes the candidates begin their campaign a year before the elections. Volunteer-managers organize TV and radio advertising, which is paid by the candidates. Participants of the election campaign on Internet and social networks are more active. Sometimes auto attendants contain campaign messages before the elections. They are using different ways, including organizing festivals or candies entertainments, to invite voters to the campaign events. They are also widely using printed campaign methods â€“ booklets, fliers â€“ in the United States. The campaign posters can be hanged in the private territories, near private houses by consent of owners. Cartoons, illustrations and posters mocking the candidatesâ€™ promises to their voters are also frequently used in PR-campaign.

-We believe in winning future!

-The volunteers believe in the victory of their candidates or parties. One of the Kansas City Democrat staff managers says: â€œOf course, we believe in our victory and winning the majority of votes. We are hopeful that the voters will support our programâ€. Representatives of the Republican Party also hope on the election results.