The US election is not far away. This will decide who will be president for the next four years, Donald Trump or Joe Biden. But how are they elected?
Firstly, you need to meet the constitutional requirements. They are:
- You must be 35 years of age or older
- You must be a US citizen
- You must have lived in the US for fourteen years
Running for President
The process starts the year prior to the presidential election.
This is when potential candidates announce that they are going to run in the US primaries, and if they win that then the presidential election.
They announce their intention to run before the primaries begin in order to fundraise and drum up support for their bid.
For example, Joe Biden announced his bid to run on the April 25, 2019.
This was nine months before the first primary and twenty months before the presidential election. Donald Trump, as a one-term president, was always going to run for a second term.
Primaries and Caucuses
Although this bit of the process is called the primaries, there are actually two types of elections going on, primaries and caucuses.
What is the difference between a primary and a caucus?
A caucus is a meeting of registered party members.
To vote for their preferred candidate, people must move to the group that supports the candidate.
They debate and can move about until the caucus ends.
The candidate with the biggest group at the end of the caucuse wins.
A primary however is a straightforward election with private ballots casted.
Now we need to talk about the types of primary held.
What are the different types of primary?
Closed primary – only registered members of that political party can vote, no independents or anyone from the opposite party.
For example, in a closed Republican primary, only registered Republican members can vote.
Semi-closed primary – only registered members and independents can vote
Open primary – Any registered member and independent can vote in either primary.
In this instance, only a registered Democrat could vote in the Republican primary.
This is all decided on a state by state basis. You can only vote in one primary.
What is the timeline for this?
The primaries and caucuses last from February of election year until August.
The Iowa caucus is always first, followed by the New Hampshire primary, then Nevada and South Carolina.
Other states agree to hold their primaries on the same day, called Super Tuesday. The rest of the states fill out the rest of the time.
How are the winners decided?
In these elections voters are not voting for the candidates themselves. Instead they are voting for delegates.
The number of delegates depends on the population of the state. The delegates are allocated to the candidates either through proportional representation or winner takes all.
The delegates then meet up at the party National Convention in August where they vote for the candidate. If a delegate goes against a state’s wishes, they are known as faithless electors.
They can be sanctioned through state law or if state law does not prevent it then informally through party channels.
In Democratic primaries there are people known as super-delegates. These people represent the political elite of the party and can vote how they wish.
However, the winner of primaries is often known before August due to some candidates dropping out because of lack of support.
After the National Convention, campaigning for the presidential election begins.
Joe Biden saw off challenges from Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren in his primary.
Due to Donald Trump being an incumbent, he faced no significant primary challenge, some states wouldn’t have held a primary for the incumbent.
If an incumbent does face a significant challenge in the primary stage, that usually foreshadows difficulty in the presidential election.
How is the president elected?
The president is elected through a system called the electoral college. Winning a majority of people and states is not needed to win the presidency.
Instead, people are voting for electors who will then vote on their behalf.
There are 538 electors, because that is the total number of people in Congress, 100 in the Senate and 438 in the House of Representatives.
This means that 270 votes are needed to win the presidency (half plus one).
How are states allocated electors?
States are allocated electors based on the number of people they send to Congress.
This means each state has at least three votes because every state has at least two members of Congress and one House Representative.
The number of House Representatives a state has is based on its population. Whilst not a state, the District of Columbia gets three electors.
All but two states are on a winner take all system, meaning that if only 51% of Californians vote Democrat all of California’s electors go to the Democratic Party.
The two outliers, Maine and Nebraska, operate on proportional representation.
There are however key states that are seen as swing states. This means that that have a history of voting for either party.
This is unlike other who consistently vote for one party, for example California consistently votes Democrat and Alaska consistently votes Republican.
There are 8 swing states in 2020 that could decide the election. They are: Arizona, Florida, Georgia Michigan, Minnesota, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.
This means that Biden and Trump have spent the most time campaigning there.
As the incumbent, Donald Trump has the advantage. Only 10 out of the 45 presidents have failed to win re-election.
When will the result be known?
While the result of how the public voted in November will be known soon after the election, as mentioned before this isn’t the election for the president. The electors meet in December to vote for the president.
Due to a higher proportion of mail-in votes this year, it is possible that the official result won’t be known for some time.
What if there is a tie?
Due to the fact that there are 538 college votes it is possible for both candidates to draw with 269 votes each.
If this happens, the House of Representatives breaks a tie, however each state only gets one vote, meaning there are 50 votes.
The Senate votes in the vice-president if this happens as well.
When does the next president take office?
The next president and vice president are inaugurated in late January.
By Kieran Burt
Feature image: Sophie Puffett / Platform Design.