Electoral Process There are very many elections each year in America. Though the most important, the national election for president is held every four years. These elections are far from simple in terms of organization. The process for a national election lasts nearly a year.
A party must provide nominated people to stand for election. ‘Primary election’ is the term used in America for the elections which will select the two parties’ presidential nomination. The primary elections start in January of election year and can last until June in what is called the ‘primary season’. Registered voters vote for their delegates.
Since 1952 the first primary election has traditionally been in New Hampshire. Of those nominated, only one is selected by the party delegates at the national conventions. This takes place during the summer. The voting body at a national convention is made up of delegates. The delegates, once at a convention, vote for a candidate for the presidential election. The vice-president is also announced at the national convention.
Also at the conventions, each party’s policy platform is announced. This is essentially what each party plans to do if elected by the people. After the national conventions, the two parties’ presidential hopefuls can concentrate on campaigning for the ultimate prize in American politics. Each state has a number of delegates attached to it who are members of the state’s Electoral College. It is these people who the voters in that state are in reality voting for as most of these delegates are voted for at the same time as the presidential election. The number of delegates a state gets is dependent on its population and its representation in the House of Representatives.
The Essay on Elections
Elections Presidential elections may well be the most studied topic in American political science. Still, although journalists have chronicled presidential campaigns from the inside (Theodore White's The Making of the President series still stands out as the best of this genre), there have been few scholarly accounts of how presidential campaigns are conducted. Similarly, while much attention has ...
The election of the electors and congress takes place on the first Tuesday in November. The presidential election is done on a winner-take-all basis in a state. Therefore if a candidate has most voters voting for him in a state, he will get all the Electoral votes from that state. This is true even if the number of people who voted against him is greater than the number he received. As the number of Electoral College delegates per state is known on election night, once the votes in that state have been counted and the majority of the states decisions are in, it can be concluded with almost certainty who will be the next president and the Electoral College’s post-election votes are merely a formality and a ritual gone through. The new term for the president begins in January.
Bibliography Higgins, Josh. US Elections.
