As the 2024 US elections progress, the electoral environment is experienced differently than in other years; With the use of social networks and decisive discourses that sow doubts in voters, national political conventions are not enough to provide order and confidence in such an unstable environment.
In the United States, national political conventions are usually predictable events whose outcome is determined by the preceding primaries, in which party voters elect their candidate and delegates, present their platform or policies, and mobilize their supporters. voter base.
But how do they work in years with unusual circumstances? In the case of this year, on the one hand there has been a divided party that pressures to hold a dispute openly for not agreeing with the candidate, while the other was held under the shadow of a violent act.
These events can modify the electoral process that has become different from other years and affects citizen participation, generating distrust and fear that will be reflected in the electoral results.
Conventions in the past were held to discuss the candidate's capabilities and evaluate what needed to be worked on, but now they have become a celebration leaving important issues aside, said Sherry Bebitch Jeffe, retired professor of Practice of Medicine. Public Policy Communication at the Sol Price School of Public Policy at the University of Southern California, during a briefing by Ethnic Media Services.
The way elections are held has changed as the media and social networks have gained greater weight. Previously, the way information was circulated and communicated determined more direct contact in this process, something that has been lost and adds to distrust, as mentioned by the former NBC4 Los Angeles political analyst.
For his part, Jonathan Diaz, director of Voting Defense and Associations at the Campaign Legal Center, added that since the pandemic, the way of doing politics changed, since people could not meet in person and many people passed by. They spend a lot of time on their cell phones, so the importance of having a digital marketing specialist who was capable of carrying out an effective campaign through digital media was seen as a necessity.
The campaigns carried out on social networks cannot be completely controlled and a lot of misinformation has generated hatred among voters and these rivalries are experienced between communities, something that was not so marked before, Diaz added.
Bill Schneider, professor emeritus at the Schar School of Politics and Government at George Mason University, commented that Donald Trump has generated a speech where he assures that if he loses, they would be in an act of fraud and his supporters also assure this by questioning the system. electoral.
"Trump was once asked if he thought that the electoral system in the country was fair and he responded: it is fair if I win, if I win the system is fine," concluded the also professor at the University of California in Los Angels.
Jonathan Diaz explained that within the speech it has been mentioned that Biden has many immigrant sympathizers so they will look for illegal means to support him and as a consequence there will be fraud, although this is not real, the speech already calls into question the system.
"There are many messages from Trump's allies to reduce confidence in the elections and create doubts in the minds of society, in case he loses, he can change the results in his favor," added the electoral law analyst.
In the case of Biden's withdrawal, Diaz believes that it should not modify the voters' preferences, because even if they are supporters of Biden, it is known that in the event of any event, Kamala Harris would be the one to take her already assigned position as vice president, so it would not make any sense for someone else to take that place and the enthusiasm of the voters should not be a problem.
However, as Biden withdraws from the race for the presidency of the United States and provide their support to Kamala Harris, many have questioned the stability of the party, the elections, and even the electoral system, generating many questions that will have to be answered in the following months to reach elections in themselves unusual.
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