After several amendments and modifications, the US Constitution made clear how the President is to be elected. The President and Vice-President candidates must not be below 35 years of age, native-born citizens, and have been residents of the US for at least 14 years. There is no consecutive third term for any President.
The Presidential election takes place every four years on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November. (If November 1 is a Tuesday, the election takes place on November 8.) But the new President doesn’t take office until January 20 of the following year.
The two major political parties in the US are Democratic and Republican.. lesser-known parties include Reform, Green, Natural law, and libertarian which do not enjoy much popularity. Interestingly, from one political party many aspirants emerge to run for President. There is no high command or dictatorial supremo like in a mafia. So, public conventions are organised in each State called ‘primaries’ and ‘caucuses’ to let the masses choose the final candidates. A ‘primary’ resembles a general election where secret ballots are used. A ‘caucus’ is a gathering where people’s delegates discuss the issues and assess the worth of candidates at a central location and then cast their votes for candidates in an open election on the basis of their prominence in the party. In most cases, the voting delegates let their chosen Presidential candidate select a Vice-Presidential candidate. Candidates for President and Vice-President Run Together.
During the ‘caucus-primary’ 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. Voters also can’t choose a Presidential candidate from one ticket and a Vice-Presidential candidate from another ticket.
The national Presidential election actually takes place in each of the 50 States and the District of Columbia, wherein people actually cast votes for “electors” pledged to one of the tickets. These electors constitute the “Electoral College.” (In most cases, the names of the electors aren’t written on the ballot; instead, the ballot lets voters choose among “Electors for” each of the tickets, naming the Presidential and Vice-Presidential candidates.
Most people running for President would be serving in government as members of the US Senate, 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, the candidate or someone else on his/her behalf files papers with the Federal Elections Commission. Candidates usually make these announcements at least a year before the election in order to give themselves enough time to get their messages out and also to give voters enough time to get to know them well.
In India, aspirants keep waiting until the last moment for a ticket doled by the high command. Some beggars and mean party leaders sell tickets, as has been reported by numerous candidates at a later time. In India, known as the biggest democracy, voters are forced to choose from among the scoundrels and rogues dumped on them.
In the US, each State has the same number of electors as it has Senators and Representatives (there are two Senators from each state, but the number of Representatives depends on the State’s population as recorded in the most recent census). The District of Columbia with only three electors is not a State, but it participates in the Presidential elections.
People in each State vote for electors in the Electoral College. In most of the States, and also in the District of Columbia, the election is on a winner-take-all basis. Whichever ticket receives the most votes in that State (or in DC) gets all the electors. (The only exceptions are ‘Maine’ and ‘Nebraska’ where only two of the electors are chosen in a ‘winner-take-all’ fashion. The remaining electors are determined by the winner in each Congressional district, with each district voting for one elector.)
The Electoral College then votes for President and Vice-President, with each elector casting one vote; these votes are called electoral votes. Each elector is pledged to vote for particular candidates for President and Vice-President. In most elections, all the electors vote in accordance with the pledge they made; it is not clear what would happen in the unlikely event that a large number of electors violated their pledge and voted differently. Normally, one of the candidates for President receives a majority (more than half) of the electoral votes and is elected President. That candidate’s Vice-Presidential running has to receive a majority of electoral votes to be elected Vice-President.
If there’s no Electoral College winner, the House of Representatives chooses the President from among the top three Presidential vote-getters in the Electoral College. Each State delegation in the Congress casts one vote. But the Vice-President is chosen from the top two vote-getters by the Senate. Once the conventions are over, 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 messages across.
People across the country cast their votes for whichever candidate they believe will do the best job. This is called the popular vote, but it is more than a popularity contest where the less worthy may win by deceiving people with false promises with ability to talk well. 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 the Americans are casting their votes for Presidential candidates, they are actually casting their votes for electors, who will cast their votes for the candidates.
The Presidential candidate who receives the most votes in each State gets all of the electoral votes for that State. For example, if the State of Vermont has three electoral votes, it casts all its electoral votes for the winning candidate. So, if Diana Valdez has 4,100,103 votes and Fred Smith has 4,100,100 votes, Valdez still gets all three of Vermont’s electoral votes and Smith gets 0. When all the electoral votes are counted, the candidate with the most votes wins. In most cases, the candidate who wins the popular vote also wins in the Electoral College. In the event of dispute or confusion, the Supreme Court gives the final result.
This election method looks bizarre! But this system does guarantee that the person elected President has substantial support distributed throughout the US. The Electoral College has also been critically instrumental for the long-term political stability in the United States. India has to learn a lot from the US in preventing criminals from electoral politics.
This time, Republican Donald Trump clinched victory over Democratic Hillary Clinton. The President-elect addressed supporters at his victory party in New York after his rival Hillary Clinton called him and conceded.
Trump had confounded pre-election polls by taking a series of key battleground States, including Florida, Ohio and North Carolina before stunningly carrying Pennsylvania, a State that had not backed a Republican for President since 1988. The celebrity businessman clinched victory after capturing Wisconsin’s 10 electoral votes, putting him over the 270 threshold.
4 Back home, Modi has struck an impressive blow to black money barons. But there is rumour that he gave sufficient time for supporting crooks to set their financial problems right before swinging the sword. Though rumours don’t mean a thing, Modi has to show results by nabbing offenders from all parties. Only non-BJP violators being netted would reveal conspiracy.
4 closer home in Odisha, the proposal of taking the Mahanadi issue outside India would be the worst national shame as going beyond a sovereign state to settle home matters is sin for that would be ‘washing dirty linen in public’.
God give wisdom to Naveen advisors who misguide him so horrifically! Instead of wasting one more moment, he must knock at the doors of the superior law courts. Forming the longest human chain to hit records would be the stupidest act that may cause ‘human rights violation’ due to physical torture. A similar act was performed by innocent tribal children in Bhubaneswar under the summer sun to transmit some meaningless message in the recent past. The organising school authorities escaped punishment as no one complained, to their good luck.
(The writer is a core member of Transparency International, Odisha)