Regardless of population, each state automatically has three electoral votes.
Elections in the United States are held every four years. The whole world's attention is riveted on them. In particular, further support for Ukraine will depend on the future president.
How the election process in the United States is structured – we will tell you further.
Who can run for president
There are three main conditions for candidates for the post of head of state in the United States:
“Almost any adult US citizen can run for president. This applies to those who have been accused of committing a crime or even convicted of it,” says a professor of political science at DePaul University in Illinois Wayne Stegger.
According to Stegger, the U.S. Constitution, in fact, contains a provision that explicitly allows such people to run for president, so that political prisoners are not deprived of the opportunity to govern the country.
At the same time, the third 14th Amendment to the US Constitution prohibits from holding political office persons who previously took the oath of allegiance to the US Constitution, but subsequently “engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the United States, or gave aid or comfort to its enemies.”
Despite the fact that the US Supreme Court will not rule on the case of presidential candidate Donald Trump's involvement in the storming of the Capitol building by his supporters on January 6, 2021, until the 2024 presidential election, the majority of the justices said that the former president has broad protections from criminal prosecution for actions that are part of his official duties.
When are the elections held and who else choose
The US presidential election always takes place on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November. This year it is November 5.
In addition to the president, voters will also elect new members of Congress.
Congress is the legislative body of the United States.
It consists of two chambers:
Members of the House of Representatives serve two-year terms, while senators serve six-year terms, and are divided into three groups, meaning that a third of them are up for re-election every two years.
All 435 seats in the House of Representatives and 33 seats in the Senate are up for election this year.
The House of Representatives is currently controlled by the Republicans, initiating spending plans. While Democrats lead the Senate, which votes on key cabinet appointments.
Primaries and Caucuses
The low eligibility requirements complicate the various stages of the complex election process, particularly primaries.
Primaries are an institution for selecting party candidates to participate in the presidential elections. A caucuses is a party meeting for the initial nomination of presidential candidates – the first stage of this process.
Primaries and caucuses are held at the state level in early spring in the election year. If a candidate does not run as an independent, he is registered as a representative of a political party in the state in which he lives. Primaries are held in the form of a secret ballot, and the winner is considered to be the candidate who receives the most votes.
Then, open voting most often takes place at caucuses. Hundreds of such meetings take place when the relevant procedure begins in one state or another.
These are the procedures used to determine the level of support for the presidential candidates and to select the one who will represent the party in the general election in November.
What Happens During Party Conventions
After the primaries and caucuses, political parties hold their National Conventions to formally elect their party's presidential and vice presidential candidates, who will then compete for the White House.
Each state sends 50 delegates to vote for their party's candidate for president. To be nominated, he must receive a simple majority of delegate votes.
Electoral College
The candidate who receives the necessary number of voters to win the US election will win.
It is the Electoral College, which consists of 538 people, that elects the President and Vice President of the United States. To win, a candidate needs an absolute majority – at least 270 votes of the electorate.
The number of electors from a given state depends on its geography and population: each state gets as many electors as it has representatives in the U.S. Congress.
Regardless of population, each state automatically has three electoral votes, since all states have two senators and at least one seat in the House of Representatives.
California has the most electors, 54, and Vermont has only 3. Each state decides for itself how to distribute its allotted electoral votes. They are usually given automatically to the candidate who wins a simple majority of the votes cast by the state's voters during the general election.
When the winner of the election is known
It usually takes a few days for all the votes to be counted, but the winner will likely be known by the morning of the following day.
The new president will take office on January 20 in a ceremony known as the inauguration, held on the steps of the Capitol in Washington.
After the ceremony, the new president heads to the White House to begin his four-year term as leader USA
“Third Candidate”
Since the mid-19th century, either Democrats or Republicans have become presidents of the United States. The majoritarian electoral system in the United States has led to the historical dominance of only two parties – Republican and Democratic. So only candidates nominated by these parties have a real chance of winning.
Although in reality, more than two people usually run for president in the United States. At the same time, each state determines the composition of the ballot independently, putting forward conditions for candidates such as collecting a certain number of signatures or making a deposit.
Based on the results of the previous elections, candidates from third parties gain a few percent or even fractions of a percent of the votes in the elections.
Recall that tomorrow, November 5, the United States of America will hold presidential elections. Currently, the candidate from the Democratic Party, US Vice President Kamala Harris is ahead of the Republican candidate Donald Trump by a small margin.
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