With just 1 month left to go, here is a guide to the U.S presidential election
The U.S. presidential election process is structured through several key stages:
Primaries and Caucuses
- Primaries: Voters in each state cast ballots for their preferred presidential candidate. These are held by political parties to choose a nominee.
- Caucuses: A more hands-on, communal form of election where party members discuss and vote openly for candidates. Fewer states use this system compared to primaries.
These processes result in delegates being awarded to candidates based on their performance. Each party sets a required number of delegates for a candidate to secure the nomination.
National Party Conventions
- Each party holds a national convention after the primaries and caucuses, where delegates officially vote to confirm the party’s nominee. The presidential candidate also announces their vice-presidential running mate at this stage.
General Election Campaign
- Once nominees are chosen, they campaign nationwide. The campaigns often focus on key “battleground states” where the vote could go either way.
- Debates are held between candidates to outline their policies and try to sway undecided voters.
General Election (Popular Vote)
- On Election Day (the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November), U.S. citizens cast their votes. However, the winner is not determined by the national popular vote alone, but through the Electoral College system.
Electoral College
- Each state is allocated a number of electoral votes based on its population (equal to the number of its Congressional representatives).
- In most states, the candidate who wins the popular vote gets all of the state’s electoral votes (a “winner-take-all” system).
- There are 538 electoral votes in total, and a candidate must win at least 270 electoral votes to become president.
- Swing states (or battleground states) often decide the outcome, as their voters are not consistently loyal to a single party.
Inauguration
- After the results are certified, the newly elected president is inaugurated on January 20th following the election year, officially assuming office.
Special Considerations:
- Faithless Electors: In some rare cases, an elector may vote against their pledged candidate, though many states have laws to prevent this.
- Contingent Election: If no candidate gets 270 electoral votes, the election is decided by the House of Representatives (for the president) and the Senate (for the vice president).
This combination of popular vote and the Electoral College system makes U.S. presidential elections unique.