How US President Is Elected

How The US President Is Elected?

Voting for the President of the United States is a rather complex and diverse action with deep historical roots and constitutional foundations. Here, unlike in many of the world’s countries where the leadership is voted for directly by the public, the election in the United States is conducted through a two-tier system: direct public vote and the Electoral College. Therefore, This system has taken centuries to develop, with each stage resulting in what we can call a structured process comprising several stages. In this guide, each stage leading to the attainment of the White House will be briefly outlined, thus exposing how a given candidate gets through the initial primaries and caucuses before the Inauguration Day.

Step 1: Primary Elections And Caucuses

The US Presidential Elections

Before the general election, there are primaries and caucuses – these are held months before the end of the presidential term. They are conducted by political parties to decide their candidate in the general election. Here’s how they work:

Primary Elections

In most states, voters directly elect their candidates by voting within their preferred party’s primary. These are ordinary polls whereby people pick the option that they wish to see winning.

Caucuses

Some states employ the APC system in which choice is made through caucuses, not primaries. Caucuses are social meetings of party members who engage directly in voting and choosing candidates. The voters may mobilize along the lines of their preferred candidates for the US president; some rounds of debates will take place, and then the voting round is done.

Causes occur at different times, so the primary calendar refers to the period that the states carry out their primaries. Some of them are Iowa and New Hampshire, the initial stages, because the holder in the early stages stands a better probability of attracting more support and funds.

Step 2: The National Conventions

National Conventions For The Election Of US President

Thus, after the early season primary elections are over, each party convention is held to officially announce its presidential candidate. Instead, members of the party in each state are elected during the primary process and the caucus, who then convene to vote on the candidates.

Convention 

  • Formally, the delegates elect the party’s presidential candidate. Usually, the candidate with the most delegates wins the nomination.
  • The party’s nominee then chooses a viably presidential running mate, who will also be named the vice-presidential candidate.
  • Both nominate and elect party leaders and compose and ratify party platforms, a statement of the party’s policies and aims.

The conventions are a major media event in that they mark the beginning of the general election campaign. Before the general election, party leaders and other popular politicians give speeches to discuss the common goals and pump up the base.

Step 3: The General Election Campaign

The US Presidential Electoral Campaign

Subsequently, it is followed by the general election, generally held in November each year. At this stage, candidates go around the country selling their policies, participating in televised debates, and interacting with the public.

Common campaigning management techniques target floppy states—these are the regions where there is no definitive victor. Some of these states are Florida, Pennsylvania, and Ohio, among others. Candidates invest a lot of effort and money here because the outcome of elections in these states might determine who will obtain the majority of electoral votes and finally win the presidency.

Electoral Campaigns

Participate in debates: Presidential and vice-presidential debates are healthy platforms where contenders can give their positions on issues and engage their rivals.

Deliver policy speeches and attend rallies: These activities help them communicate their agendas to the general public.

Run advertisements: Media such as television, radio, and the internet enable candidates to convey messages to a large number of people.

Step 4: The General Election

US Presidential Election

It refers to a presidential election conducted every four years on the first Tuesday of November after the first Monday. In this election, the voters help put in place a team of persons who, in return, help put in an individual’s most preferred candidate.

Yet, despite the knowledge that Americans, in reality, vote for the electors pledged to support a specific presidential candidate for the Electoral College, they vote for a direct candidate of their choice. These electors make up what is referred to as the Electoral College, a rather funny democracy that Americans have and one that, in the final atom, decisively on the president.

Step 5: The Electoral College

US Presidential Elections

The Electoral College comprises 538 voters, the number of states in America, and the District of America, Washington DC. Such electors are decisions made by all eligible voters in the United States state of concern, the total number of House of Representatives and Senate members. For example, when the number of electoral votes is high, as in California – no more than 55; they can divide it among the state’s 53 portioned House members and 2 Senators, whereas Wyoming has only three electoral votes.

Some methods through which the US president is elected through the Electoral College

  • Winner-Takes-All System: The person who gains the highest number of votes in fifty states, except one and two, gets all the electoral votes of the particular state. Maine and Nebraska are two states that do it differently by apportioning the electoral votes. Main and Nebraska, however, do so in a different way.
  • Majority Requirement: The electoral votes are 538; however, in order to be provided with the presidency, a candidate must secure 270 electoral votes.

Casting Electoral Votes

They meet in December in the states to vote in a formal manner to elect the US president and vice president. The results are then forwarded to Congress for what is called the certification process, which I shall describe in the next section.

Only the right to delegate the presidential function to the Electoral College is occasionally a topical issue of discussion because the person known to have won the majority of votes throughout the country can be nominated only to lose the election if the number of received electoral votes is insufficient. This has happened five times in America’s history, the last being the 2016 election.

Step 6: Certification by Congress

Congress convenes, especially after the elections in early January, to open the certifications regarding the results of the Electoral College votes. The vice president of the United States of America will chair this briefing session.

These opinions are stated, and the electoral voices are tabulated:

When the presidential candidates have yet to obtain 270 electoral votes, the decision is handed over to the House of Representatives, which elects the US President, and the Senate, which elects the Vice President. This is done by certification of votes, with the candidate having the highest votes and being declared president-elect.

This is, in fact, the meaning of ‘except for certification, it is impossible to determine whether the person was elected or not.’ Below are two equivalents: ‘ congressional certification of the election’ = ‘no legal means of determining the election outcome.’

Step 7: Inauguration Day

Inauguration Day Of US President

After the elections, the head of state was sworn in to assume the presidency on the twenty-twentieth of January. The Chief Justice of the Supreme Court administers the newly elected US President on this occasion, and the Oath of Allegiance is said. This is legally the time when an individual or group of individuals come into their new term of office.

Why The Electoral College?

In other words, the Electoral College made provision for a part of the president’s direct choice and the congressional election of the US President. Sociopolitically, it is founded on the political rhetoric of the state-federal relations system and the political bipolar pattern of the United States of America.

Some reasons why critics of the Electoral College are right include

  • It goes against the grain of democracy that the aspiring leaders to represent the governments in the union should also look forward to paying taxes. Yet, the Presidency has been awarded to the man who has won the elections but with fewer votes than his competitors.
  • It pays more attention to the ‘safe,’ ‘battleground,’ and the ones with electoral voting that is nearly volatile.
  • This weakens the discretion of voters from ‘safe states,’ which are the states where the public has the most domination from one party.
  • This will minimize bias in the region for the following reasons: It will help the campaigns notify as many people as possible in the country.

Conclusion

The U.S. presidential election. It’s a process that takes months (years) of primary elections, conventions, campaigning, debating, and, at the end, voting. The direct election and the electors of the electoral college are an outstanding method of the presidential election that embodies the federal principles of the United States and the significance of the state voices. It’s important to understand that the race for US president is far from over, and, as much as Americans debate the process, the process continues to define how Americans select their leaders, making the US presidential election both nuanced and decidedly untraditional.

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