How many electoral votes must a candidate receive in order to win the presidency?
The US Presidential Election takes place every four years on the first Tuesday in November. Candidate must be at least 35 years old, born in the United States and lived in the US for the previous 14 years in order to be eligible. Traditionally, candidates make their intention to run for President public in the year before the election takes place. Since there is no national authority which conducts the elections, local authorities organize the election with the help of thousands of administrators. Presidential primaries and caucuses The election process starts with the primaries and caucuses in January or February of the election year. Primaries are organized by state and local authorities using a secret ballot to cast votes for hopeful presidential candidates from each of the major parties. Caucuses are private events organized by political parties themselves. Here, voters decide publicly which candidate they prefer. Afterwards, organizers count the votes and calculate how many delegates each candidate receives. Delegates Each state, the District of Columbia and some US territories are allocated a number of delegates, usually determined by population size. In addition, a formula is used to adjust the number by “rewarding” states which, for example, voted for the last party’s Presidential candidate. These delegates represent their state in the national party convention and vote to decide each party's presidential candidate. There a two main types of delegates:
National conventions The national convention of each party is held in the summer of an election year. A majority of delegates’ votes is needed to receive the nomination of the party, which is often already reached and known before the national conventions take place. If no majority is reached, the national convention is where the presidential candidate will be selected. General Election campaigning After the nominee for each political party have been chosen, the presidential candidates go head-to-head campaigning throughout the country. They go on rallies and take part in debates to win the support of voters across the nation. Moreover, they explain their plans and views to society. Electoral College On Election Day, voters go to the
polling place and cast their vote for their prefered candidate. The voters elect their President and Vice President indirectly. Both are chosen by electors through the Electoral College process. Inauguration Day Inauguration Day takes place on January 20 at the U.S. Capitol building in Washington D.C. First, the Vice President is sworn in, followed by the President. Both officially become President and Vice President after reciting the oath of office which has been used since the late 18th century. See also: Primary , caucus, Republican Party, Democratic Party So why have the candidates spent millions of dollars urging you to vote for them? Because in most cases, the 540 members of the Electoral College, called electors, are obligated to vote for the candidate who won the popular vote in their state or territory. In other words, the winner of the popular vote in a particular state gets all the state's electoral votes, even if he only won the state by a few votes. It is the electors' vote that technically decides the election, and a candidate must gain 270 electoral votes to win the White House. In most elections, the winner of the popular vote also wins the majority of the electoral votes. But four times in our history, this has not occurred: in 1824 (John Quincy Adams), 1876 (Rutherford B. Hayes), 1888 (Benjamin Harrison) and 2000 (George W. Bush). In this year's too-close-to-call election, it is possible that both George Bush and John Kerry could receive 269 electoral votes. What would happen then? The House of Representatives would decide who wins. |