On Tuesday, November 5, the United States of America will elect its 47th president in a democratic process that is being watched keenly worldwide. For decades, the presidential election in the US has been a contest between the Republican and Democratic parties, and 2024 is no different.
On the Republican ticket, former president Donald Trump is seeking a second term in office after his defeat in the 2020 polls, while Vice President Kamala Harris had a surprise entry into the fray as the Democratic nominee after President Joe Biden was forced to drop out of the race midway during his campaign. Trump has chosen Ohio senator JD Vance as his vice presidential running mate, while Harris has Minnesota Governor Tim Walz on her side. There are also some independent candidates in the fray.
Unlike the Indian democracy where voters directly elect parliamentarians, the US follows a multi-step system which works on the principle of ensuring each state's due representation in choosing the state head. The presidential election is held every four year.
Steps of US presidential election
A candidate must be a natural-born citizen of the United States, at least 35 years old, and a resident of the US for 14 years. Candidates are selected through processes known as primaries and caucuses held from January to June of the election year. The rules of holding primaries and caucuses may vary from state to state.
Primaries are directly run by state and local governments, while caucuses are controlled and run by political parties. In primaries, voters choose their candidate from a list on an official ballot.
Caucuses, on the other hand, act more as a hectic political event in which interaction between voters is common, as is jockeying around for candidate support. The formats of both caucus primaries may differ in states. The most common type is open primaries, where voters — regardless of party affiliation — may choose to vote on any party’s ballot, though they may only choose one. Partially open primaries similarly allow voters to cross party lines but may require voters to declare their ballot choice, and/or their selection can be regarded as a form of party registration.
In closed primaries, voters often must first register with a party and are only permitted to vote in that respective party’s primary elections. Partially closed primaries are similar, with the difference being that parties themselves can choose whether to allow unaffiliated voters or those not registered with a party to vote in their primary. There are also states that allow unaffiliated voters to vote in any one primary but restrict those registered with a party to voting in that party’s primary.
National conventions
From July to early September of the election year, parties organise nominating conventions to choose their presidential nominees from the candidates selected through primaries and caucuses.
At the convention, the presidential nominee officially announces who will run with them for vice president.
Through September and October, candidates participate in presidential debates—a crucial aspect of campaigning in the US. The candidates travel throughout the country and address rallies. The parties and the candidates use advertising, direct mailings, telephone campaigns, social media, and other means to gather support.
General election
In the presidential general election, citizens who are registered as voters can exercise their franchise. They can vote even if they did not vote in their state’s primary elections.
However, the president is not chosen by direct popular vote. The Constitution requires that the Electoral College ultimately decides who will win the general election.
Electoral college
There are 538 electors in the country. The number of electoral votes allocated to a particular state equals its total congressional delegation, which includes the number of Senators and Representatives. California, for example, has 2 Senators and 52 Representatives, meaning the state has 54 electoral votes. Apart from the 50 states, the District of Columbia, which houses the capital region of Washington DC, has 3 electoral votes. Of the 538, a presidential candidate needs to win at least 270 of them to win the presidency.
The contesting political parties choose potential electors in every state before the election. The electors’ names need not be included in the ballot alongside the presidential respective nominee’s name. Electors in effect represent the nominees. The process of using electors comes from the US Constitution. The method was introduced as a compromise between a popular vote by citizens and a vote in Congress.
The votes cast by voters are counted statewide. All the states, except two, and Washington DC, allot their electoral votes to the candidate who leads in a state. For instance, all 54 of California’s electoral votes go to the winner of the state election, no matter how small the victory margin is. The two exceptions -- Maine (four electoral votes) and Nebraska (five) -- assign their electors using a proportional system. The two states allocate two electoral votes to the statewide winner but allow each congressional district to award one electoral vote to the popular vote winner in their specific locality. In Maine, two out of four electoral votes, and in Nebraska, three out of five can potentially go to someone other than the statewide winner.
The candidate who gets at least 270 (269 (half of 538) + 1) electoral votes wins the election. The projected winner is usually announced once the popular votes are counted. However, the Electoral College casts their votes in mid-December. It is, in effect, only a formality as the result is already known.
The electoral votes are counted in early January, and the new president’s term begins on January 20, which is known as Inauguration Day.
The Constitution does not require electors to vote for the candidate chosen by their state's popular vote. However, some states do have such rules. The rare elector who votes for someone else may be fined, disqualified, and replaced by a substitute elector. Or they may even be prosecuted by their state.
Why electoral votes are important?
In the US election system, it is possible that a candidate who polls the most votes nationally need not win the electoral vote. This happened in 1824, 1876, and 1888, as well as in 2000 and 2016.
In the 2000 presidential election, George W. Bush received fewer popular votes than Albert Gore Jr. but a majority of electoral votes. In 2016, Trump received fewer popular votes than Hillary Clinton but a majority of electoral votes.
In the Clinton vs Trump case, though millions more individuals voted for the Democratic candidate than the Republican candidate combined in California (CA), Pennsylvania (PA), and Texas (PX), the Democratic party was only awarded the electors appointed in California. Since the Republican candidate won more popular votes in PA and TX, the Republican party was awarded all the electoral votes in the two states (20+38 = 58). Meanwhile, Clinton had to settle for the 55 Democratic electors in CA as she had only lead in that state among the three.
If no candidate receives a majority of electoral votes, the presidential election leaves the Electoral College process and moves to Congress. The House of Representatives elects the president from the three candidates who received the most electoral votes.
In the remote scenario of a state’s popular vote ending in a tie between candidates, the law effective in that State before the general election would determine how the tie should be broken.
