Harris is the only candidate that has access to the existing campaign funds. As AOC pointed out, there are only eight weeks until early voting ballots are sent out. That’s not enough time for someone else to fundraise and run a successful campaign unless the candidate is independently wealthy.
In a lot of countries, heads of state are derived from parliament, so people vote for parties and platforms rather than people. The fixation on individuals is a bit of a weird quirk of the US system.
In France they also elect their president directly, but it is not exactly a short election cycle, with two rounds of elections: If no candidate receives 50% of the vote in the first round, the two candidates leading the race advance to a second stage and people have to vote all over again. And then the new president generally dissolves the parliament, unleashing two new elections with a similar procedure on the more local level.
I am so happy to be voting in proportional representation systems.
Harris is the only candidate that has access to the existing campaign funds. As AOC pointed out, there are only eight weeks until early voting ballots are sent out. That’s not enough time for someone else to fundraise and run a successful campaign unless the candidate is independently wealthy.
How do other countries have such short election cycles?
In a lot of countries, heads of state are derived from parliament, so people vote for parties and platforms rather than people. The fixation on individuals is a bit of a weird quirk of the US system.
In France they also elect their president directly, but it is not exactly a short election cycle, with two rounds of elections: If no candidate receives 50% of the vote in the first round, the two candidates leading the race advance to a second stage and people have to vote all over again. And then the new president generally dissolves the parliament, unleashing two new elections with a similar procedure on the more local level.
I am so happy to be voting in proportional representation systems.
Reliable news publications and actively informed voters would be my guess.