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How The President Is Elected

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22 views

How The President Is Elected

Uploaded by

leo54654600
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Qualifications to be President of the U.S.

35 years old
live 14 yrs U.S.
natural born citizen

How the President is Elected


Part 1: How It Starts

Most people who run for president are already famous. After all, if you want to be chosen by
a majority of the people in America, it helps if many of them know who you are.

Most people who run for president are already serving in government, as members of the
U.S. Senate or the House of Representatives or as state governors. Former military officers
have also run for president.

A presidential candidate first makes an official


announcement that he or she is running for
president. Then, he or she or someone else on his or
her behalf must file papers with the federal elections commission, which
regulates the election process. Candidates usually make these
announcements at least a year before the presidential election, in
order to give themselves enough time to get their messages out and also to
give voters enough time to get to know the candidates.

Once the announcement is made, the candidate begins to work very hard to make sure that
he keeps his or her name in the public eye. He or she makes speeches, meets with officials
from other countries, goes on high-profile trips, etc. The candidate also tends to cut back on
time he or she spends in government (if he or she is serving there) to run for president.

When January of an election year rolls around, the candidates begin their heavy lifting for
the campaign ahead. As more months go by, people in the American states gather to show
their support for the various candidates. (It is very rare for just one candidate from a major
political party to run for president, so many names means many people running for the
same job.) These gatherings are called primary elections or caucuses. A primary election
looks very much like a general election: Voters get ballots that list the names of the people
running for president and then go to a polling place and vote for one of those people. Most
states have primaries. A caucus is a gathering of people who discuss the issues and the
candidates at a central location and then cast their votes for candidates. Caucuses happen
in Iowa, Nevada, North Dakota and Wyoming.

It should be noted here that the majority of people who vote in an American presidential
election belong to some kind of political party. The two major political parties are
Democratic and Republican. Other political parties include Reform, Green, Natural Law,
and Libertarian. If you belong to the Democratic Party, you will get a primary election ballot
that contains only the names of the people running for president who are also Democrats.
The same is true for Republican voters and for members of other political parties. In the
general election, anyone can vote for anyone.

Leading up to and during the caucus-primary election period, the various presidential
candidates make trips across the country, visiting people everywhere and giving speeches,
trying to drum up support. Candidates will often appear alongside other famous people, like
sports stars or movie stars, hoping to gain some support by association with these people in
the spotlight. The candidates will often get together and have debates, which are usually
televised. This is another way for voters to make up their minds on which candidate should
get their votes.

The various states have their caucuses or primary elections throughout the late winter and
spring and then have a major national gathering called a convention in the summer. Each
political party picks a group of people from each state to represent the state at this
convention. At the convention, the delegates cast their votes for the candidate who was
the top vote-getter in that state in the caucus or primary election. (This is a warm-up for the
Electoral College, which comes later.)

Part 2: How It All Ends Up

Once the conventions are finished, the home stretch


for the presidential election begins. Speeches,
fundraisers, and debates follow, with all candidates
trying to keep themselves in the public eye as much
as possible. The popularity of the Internet has added
a dimension to candidates' ability to get their message across.

The presidential election takes place every four years on the first Tuesday after
the first Monday in November. (If November 1 is a Tuesday, then the election takes
place on November 8.) People across the country cast their votes for whichever candidate
they believe will do the best job. Votes are counted, and this is called the popular vote, but it
is more than a popularity contest. This is where the Electoral College comes in.

The Electoral College is a group of people who gather to cast their votes for the various
presidential candidates (much like the delegates at the political party conventions). When
we as Americans are casting our votes for the presidential candidates, we are actually
casting our votes for electors, who will cast their votes for the candidates.

The presidential candidate who receives the most votes in each states gets all of the
electoral votes for that state. In other words, if the state of Vermont has three electoral
votes, it casts all of its electoral votes for the winning candidate. So if Diana Valdez has
4,100,103 votes and Fred Smith has 4,100,100 votes, Diana Valdez still gets all three of
Vermont's electoral votes and Fred Smith gets 0.

When all the electoral votes are counted, the president with the most votes wins. In most
cases, the candidate who wins the popular vote also wins in the Electoral College. (A few
times before, this has not been the case. See the Electoral College article for more.)

The presidential election takes place in November, but the new president doesn't take office
until January 20 of the following year. (If a president gets re-elected, he goes right on
serving.) The Constitution limits presidents to two terms. Once a president has served two
terms, he retires from public office, making way for the next group of political hopefuls.
Every four years, the process starts all over again.

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