What to expect on election day in New York--A Primer on Exit Polling and Calling the Race

NEW YORK CITY -- Transcript by the New York Foreign Press Center (NYFPC) on Q & A with Dr. Christina Greer of Fordham University, during the NYFPC briefing on "What to expect on election day in New York -- A Primer on Exit Polling and Calling the Race" at The Westin New York Grand Central, November 7.

PRESS:  Good morning.  I am Alex Vidal and I am from the Philippines.
We hold our presidential election every six years and like in the United States, there are more than 100 candidates who file a certificate of candidacy. 

And before the election proper commences, the names of these so-called nuisance candidates are removed from the ballots.  
So we’ve learned that in the United States, in this year’s election there are at least, 1,780 people who signified their statement of candidacy.  So how do you handle this situation?  Are their names still there in the ballot?
DR. GREER:  Depending on I think the state in which they possibly declared, but no.  We know that most people have never heard of any of these people.  Right?  
And you have to get a certain threshold to actually show up on a ballot.  So you may have declared your candidacy, but you are not on a ballot as a proper party.  A recognized party.
There are lots of ways that you can write in particular individuals, but unfortunately, I think that goes back to an earlier question where it’s like the country and the institutions, mechanisms that create sort of how we run our elections are really based on a two-party system.  Right?
The interesting thing, though, is there has been a conversation and I don’t know how this would happen because again it would be a constitutional amendment, but some people argue that because of the influx of money in campaigns these days.  
We know that essentially we’ve been dealing with this campaign for about a year and a half.  Because of so much money and like the billions of dollars that it now costs to run for the presidency, we know that the sitting President has to start running essentially immediately after the mid-term elections. Right?  
So when Barack Obama got through the 2014 mid-term elections, or the 2010 elections, he essentially geared up for his reelection campaign for 2012.
Some people argue, well if we gave the presidency just six years, so it’s a one term of six years, we wouldn’t have to worry about someone spending essentially two years running for reelection.  
They could just get in and get the job done and then they leave.  Right? 
However, our Senators are there for six years and so it’s an interesting proposition, but I don’t know if that would happen.