Various Steps in United States President’s Election

The United States has a bicameral legislature consisting of the Senate and the House of Representatives. Direct elections are held to fill the vacancies in these legislatures. In addition, the vacancies in the Senate may be filled by a gubernatorial appointment. Like in India, the minimum age to exercise franchise in the presidential elections is 18-years.

US Presidential election happens once in every four years on Election Day. Election Day falls on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November. So, accordingly, the Presidential election will be held on November 8, 2016.

Eligibility conditions for a US Presidential candidate

The Presidential candidate must be:

• A natural-born citizen of the United States (Natural Born Citizens are those who are born in the US or born abroad to the parents both of whom are US citizens or born abroad with one US citizen parent)
• at least 35 years old,
• Should have been a resident of the United States for 14 years.

Steps in the US Presidential elections

Step 1: Primaries and Caucuses

Before the general election, a series of primary elections and caucuses are held in each state and territory (including Puerto Rico and Guam) of the US. The main purpose of the primaries and caucuses is to help the states to choose the nominees of the political parties’ for the general election. This process is not specified in the US constitution and got evolved over time. Each state and territory in the US holds primaries or caucuses or both of them.

The primaries and caucuses are run differently but both of them are essentially conducted to elect state delegates who represent their states at national party conventions. The candidate who is able to accumulate a majority of his/her party’s delegates at the national party convention wins the party’s nomination.

Caucus

A caucus is a local private meeting of the local members of a political party to select delegates to the national party convention. In a caucus, members divide themselves into groups according to the candidates they support.  The members select candidate through a series of discussions and finally based on the votes they cast, the number of delegates each candidate has won will be calculated. The Iowa caucus marks the start of the US presidential elections.

Primary

Primary elections are state level elections conducted by the state and local governments. In this, voting occurs through a secret ballot and voters choose candidates affiliated with their political party for the upcoming general elections. Winning candidates will send the delegates to the national party convention.

The delegates selected through primaries and caucuses then officially nominate their national candidate.

In total, the caucuses are held in 10 US states— Iowa, Alaska, Colorado, Hawaii, Kansas, Maine, Minnesota, Nevada, North Dakota and Wyoming. The remaining 40 states hold primaries.

Step 2: National Conventions

After the primaries and caucuses, political parties hold a national convention to finalize one presidential candidate. The candidates who have won the required number of delegates in primaries and caucuses stands selected. At the convention, the presidential candidate chooses a vice presidential candidate (running mate). However, if none of the candidates have the majority of party’s delegates, then the party’s presidential nominee is chosen at the convention.

Step 3: General election:

The General population in the country vote for one president and one vice-president. Here when people vote, they are actually voting for a group of people called as electors.

Step 4: Electoral College

Each state is allotted a certain number of electors depending upon its total number of representatives in Congress. The electors then cast their votes to decide the next President of the US. Each elector has one electoral vote. If a candidate obtains more than half (270) out of the total 538 electoral votes, he stands elected to the office of the President. In the event no candidate has the majority then the House of Representatives chooses the President and the Senate chooses the Vice President. Both the president-elect and vice president-elect take the oath of office in January.

Criticism

Although the electoral votes get aligned with the popular vote most of the times, there are some (four) instances in the US history when the elected president did not receive the most popular votes. These 4 presidents were- Rutherford Hayes, Benjamin Harrison, John Quincy Adams, and George W. Bush.