<P> A paper campaign is a political campaign in which the candidate only files the necessary paperwork to appear on the ballot . The purpose of such a token effort may be simply to increase name awareness of a minor political party or to give voters of a certain ideology an opportunity to vote accordingly . It can be a cost - effective means of attracting media coverage . An informational campaign, by contrast, may involve news releases, newspaper interviews, door - to - door campaigning, and organizing polls . As the level of seriousness rises, the marginal cost of reaching more people rises accordingly, due to the high cost of TV commercials, paid staff, etc. which are used by competitive campaigns . </P> <P> The United States is unusual in that dozens of different offices are filled by election, from drain commissioner to the President of the United States . Elections happen every year on many different dates in many different areas of the country . </P> <P> All federal elections (that is, elections for president and vice president as well as elections to the House of Representatives and Senate) are partisan . Elections to most (but not all) statewide offices are partisan as well, and all state legislatures except for Nebraska are partisan . </P> <P> Some state and local offices are non-partisan - these often include judicial elections, special district elections (the most common of which are elections to the school board, and elections to municipal (town council, city commission, mayor) and county (county commission, district attorney, sheriff) office . In some cases, candidates of the same political party challenging each other and in many cases without any campaign references to political parties, while in other cases, even non-partisan races may take on partisan overtones . </P>

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