US ELECTIONS
SUPPLEMENTARY READER
- Quick guide: US presidential elections
The road to the White House is long, complicated and expensive. BBC News explains the process.
The early stages
A politician with presidential ambition usually forms an exploratory committee to test the waters and raise money, sometimes up to two years before the election. They then formally declare their candidacy and campaign in key states.
The primaries
The primary season begins in the January before the election and lasts until about June. This is where candidates fight within the two main parties, Republican and Democratic, for their party's nomination.
Voters in each of the 50 states select party delegates, who in most cases have pledged to support a particular candidate. Some states use a caucus - a local meeting system - rather than primaries.
The party convention
The national party conventions, held a few months before the election, are where the candidates are formally nominated.
Delegates who have been chosen during the state primaries pick the nominee, though by this stage, the party normally knows who has won.
The winning candidate then picks a running-mate, sometimes from among the defeated rivals.
The final lap
Only now do the candidates fully square up against each other. There is massive spending on advertising, and a major flurry of state-by-state campaigning. Much attention is paid to the televised debates between the candidates. This can, but does not necessarily involve any independent candidate.
In the final weeks, the contenders typically concentrate their attention on big so-called "swing states", where the outcome is uncertain.
The election
American presidential elections are always held on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November.
Voters do not, technically, participate in a direct election of the president. They choose "electors", who are pledged to one or another candidate. This is known as the Electoral College.
Each state has a certain number of electors to the college, based on the size of its population.
In almost every state, the winner of the popular vote gets all the electoral college votes in that state. Because of this system, a candidate can take the White House without winning the popular vote, such as in the 2000 contest between George W Bush and Al Gore.
- US election 2016: How to become the president of the US
20 January 2016
The US presidency is described as the world's hardest job and the election campaign is said to be its toughest job interview. How do you run for president? BBC News explains the process.
The early stages
Hillary Clinton is embarking on her second run for the presidency
A politician with presidential ambition usually forms an exploratory committee to test the waters and raise money. This can begin up to two years before the election.
The US constitution requires only that a person be a "natural born citizen" of the US, at least 35 years old, and a resident of the US for 14 years.
If the candidate attracts significant favourable notice from the news media, party officials, prospective campaign strategists, and donors, he or she formally declares his or her candidacy and launches campaigns in key early states.
Not just anyone can credibly stand for election: In the last 70 years, every non-incumbent major party presidential nominee has been either a sitting or former US senator, governor, vice-president or five-star general.
However, the current Republican race has seen the rise of outsider candidates such as businessman Donald Trump and retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson who have not held elective office.
On the Democratic side, Hillary Clinton (a former first lady, New York senator and secretary of state) and Bernie Sanders (a member of Congress since 1989) have more traditional presidential resumes.
The nomination fight
Candidates get up and close personal with the people in the early voting states
After declaring, the candidates begin vying for their party's nomination for the presidency.
Typically - but not always - they spend the next several months campaigning heavily in the early primary and caucus states of Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina.
Those states hold the first contests of the campaign in the January before the election, and good performances there can make or break a candidacy.
US primaries and caucuses
Early voting states like South Carolina have outsized influence on the race
Voters in each of the 50 states, plus Washington DC and some US territories, select party delegates who in most cases pledge to support a particular candidate.
Some states use a caucus - a local meeting system - rather than primaries.
The primary election campaign lasts until about June, by which point one candidate has amassed enough delegates to win the nomination or has driven every other contender from the race.
The party convention
Conventions are normally highly scripted affairs but that could change in 2016
The national party conventions are held in the late summer about two and a half months before the election.
There, the parties formally nominate the candidates chosen by party voters in the state primaries and caucuses.
Before or at the convention, the nominee picks a running-mate, sometimes from among the defeated rivals.
Because the nominee is almost always known before the start of the convention, the conventions are mostly geared toward promoting and celebrating the nominee and laying out the party's message and agenda.
However, some analysts have suggested that this Republican convention could be a "brokered convention" where the result is decided over rounds of negotiations and voting among party delegates.
Some in the Republican Party are concerned that the current front-runner Mr Trump - a political novice with hard line views on immigration - could hurt the party in Congressional races, particularly among Latino voters.
The final lap
Most of the campaigning is focused so-called "battleground" states like Florida
After the conventions, the candidates fully square up against each other on the campaign trail, over the airwaves and in widely viewed debates.
Each spends millions of dollars on advertising and a major flurry of state-by-state campaigning.
This year, there will be three debates between the presidential candidates and one between the vice-presidential candidates, according to the Commission on Presidential Debates.
In the final weeks, the contenders typically concentrate their attention on big so-called "battleground" states, where the electorate is more or less evenly divided and hence the outcome is uncertain.
Hordes of campaign volunteers and paid staff converge on the key states, where they work the telephones and go door to door to try and persuade voters to go to the polls to support their candidate.
Watch for the candidates to blanket the airwaves with adverts in Florida, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Virginia.
The election
The winner of the popular vote most often becomes president but not always
American presidential elections are always held on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November. This year, it is 8 November.
Voters do not, technically, participate in the direct election of the president.
They choose "electors", who are pledged to one or another candidate, in a process known as the US electoral college.
Each state has a certain number of electors to the college, based on the size of its population.
In almost every state, the winner of the popular vote gets all the electoral college votes in that state.
Because of this system, a candidate can take the White House without winning the popular vote, such as in the 2000 contest between George W Bush and Al Gore.
The inauguration
The president's inauguration is day of pomp and pageantry for Washington
In the days and weeks after the election - if the vote is decisive - the victor will assemble a cabinet and begin crafting a more thorough policy agenda.
Meanwhile, the departing "lame duck" president works to shape his legacy and begins packing up his belongings.
Under the US constitution, the president is inaugurated on 20 January of the year following the election.
Congratulations
The presidency comes with many perks but also heavy scrutiny from all sides
You won.
For your efforts, you become a virtual prisoner in the White House, unable even to walk across the street without a contingent of Secret Service agents and a gaggle of aides.
You will have to endure 24-hour scrutiny and criticism of your every word and action, surround yourself with aides planning tell-all memoirs and scheming among themselves for power, and work 12-hour days in which your schedule is planned almost down to the minute.
Expect a constant battle with a hostile news media and an opposition party dedicated to frustrating and impeding your every move, from your grand economic agenda to your lowest appointments.
Only difficult decisions reach your desk - the easy ones have all been answered at lower levels of your administration.
But you will have the chance to put your personal stamp on a country of 318 million people and indeed on the entire world.
You will shape its economy, culture and society, and win a chapter for yourself in the history books alongside George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Franklin Roosevelt, Ronald Reagan and other American luminaries.
- How to become US president
20 January 2016
In January 2017, the most powerful nation on earth will have a new leader, after a drawn out and expensive campaign - but how does a US presidential election work?
When the US picks its president, it is not only choosing a head of state but a head of government and a commander-in-chief of the largest military on the planet.
It's a big responsibility. So how does the process work?
Who can be president?
Technically, to run for president, you only need to be "a natural born" US citizen, at least 35 years old, and have been a resident for 14 years. Sounds easy, right?
In reality, however, every president since 1933 has been a governor, senator, or five-star military general. And that's before you even consider getting a party nomination and securing national media attention.
In this 2016 election, at one stage there were 10 governors or former governors and 10 who are or were senators, although many have since dropped out.
One person is nominated to represent the Republican and Democratic parties in the presidential election.
Who gets to be the presidential pick for each party?
A series of elections are held in every state and overseas territory, starting in February, which determine who becomes each party's official presidential candidate.
The winner of each collects a number of "delegates" - party members with the power to vote for that candidate at the party conventions held in July, where candidates are formally confirmed.
The more state contests a candidate wins, the more delegates will be pledged to support them at the convention.
As President Barack Obama cannot run again, both parties are holding competitive primaries this year.
The Republican candidate will need 1,237 delegates to win a majority, while the Democratic contender must secure 2,383.
What are the key dates between now and election?
The first votes will be cast in Iowa on 1 February - it's the first US state to have a contest (although in Iowa's case, it's a caucus, which is a vote of people present rather than through a ballot).
Other early states include New Hampshire and South Carolina, which means they have presidential candidates visiting them for months on end.
On 1 March, a dozen states pick their presidential nominees, so it's called SuperTuesday. In 2016, the primaries held on 15 March, including Florida, Ohio and North Carolina, could be significant because so many delegates are up for grabs.
By the end of April, most states have cast their votes and in most election campaigns, it's clear by then who each party has picked as their presidential candidate. But it's not official until the party conventions in July.
If you're still with us, you'll be glad to know the real campaigns haven't even started yet.
That happens after the summer, when the two candidates hold a manic, mammoth journey whizzing across the country to make their case.
There are three televised presidential debates in the last six weeks before - finally - votes are cast on Tuesday, 8 November.
How does the vote in November work?
The candidate with the most votes in each state becomes the candidate which that state supports for president.
It's all down to a system called the electoral college, a group of people who choose the winner - 538 of them, in fact. Just half of them - 270 - are needed to make a president.
But not all states are equal - California, for example, has more than 10 times the population of Connecticut, so they don't get an equal say.
Each state has certain number of these "electors" based on their population in the most recent census (it so happens that it's the same number of districts in a state, plus two senators).
When citizens vote for their preferred candidate, they're actually voting for the electors, some of which are pledged to one candidate, some for another.
But here's where it gets interesting. In almost every state (except Nebraska and Maine), the winner takes all - so the person who wins the most electors in New York, for example, will get all 29 of New York's electoral votes.
In the race to get to the magic number - 270 - it's the swing states that often matter most.
What are swing states?
So, we've got two candidates, both in a race to get to 270 electors by winning whole states at at a time.
Both parties think they can bank on certain states, big and small. Republicans will count on Texas, and not waste their money campaigning to a great extent there. Similarly, California is likely to sit in the Democrats' column.
The others are known as "swing states" - where it could go either way. Florida in particular, with its 29 votes, famously decided the 2000 election in favour of George W. Bush, who lost the popular vote nationally but, after a Supreme Court case, won the electoral college.
Other swing states include: Ohio, Virginia, Colorado, North Carolina, Nevada.
When does the new president start work?
In the days and weeks after the election - if the vote is decisive - the victor will assemble a cabinet and begin crafting a more thorough policy agenda.
Meanwhile, the departing "lame duck" president works to shape his legacy and begins packing up his belongings.
Under the US constitution, the president is inaugurated on 20 January of the year following the election.
- U.S. Elections: Frequently Asked Questions
iipdigital.usembassy.gov
01 November 2011
TYPES OF ELECTIONS
What types of elections are held in the United States?
There are two basic types of elections — primary and general. In addition to the primaries and general elections held in even-numbered years, which include political races for the U.S. Congress, some states and local jurisdictions also hold “off-year” elections (both primary and general) in odd-numbered years for their elected officials.
A primary election is a nominating election in which the field of candidates that will run in the general election is chosen. Victory in a primary usually results in a candidate being nominated or endorsed by a political party for the general election.
A general election is an election held to choose among candidates nominated in a primary (or by convention, caucus or petition) for federal, state and/or local office. The purpose of a general election is to make a final choice among the various candidates who have been nominated by parties or who are running as independents (not affiliated with a major political party) or, in some cases, write-in candidates. Measures such as proposed legislation (referendums), bond issues (approving the borrowing of money for public projects) and other mandates on government also can be placed on the ballot.
In addition, many states provide for special elections, which can be called at any time, to serve a specific purpose, such as filling an unexpected vacancy in an elected office.
What are midterm elections?
The elections in which Americans vote for their congressional representatives but not for their president are known as midterm elections. Every two years, Americans elect members of the U.S. House of Representatives to two-year terms and about one-third of their U.S. senators, who serve six-year terms. Voters also will select officials to state and local government posts.
What is a convention?
Conventions are meetings sponsored by political parties for members of the party to discuss issues, candidates and campaign strategies. These meetings can last several days.
In presidential elections, after state primaries are concluded, each party holds a national convention to formally select the presidential nominee — usually the candidate who secured the support of the most convention delegates, based on victories in primary elections. Typically, the presidential nominee then chooses a running mate to be the party’s candidate for vice president.
Political parties hold national conventions only in presidential election years. The parties usually hold smaller, state-level conventions in other years. The Democratic National Convention will be in Charlotte, North Carolina, September 3–6, 2012. The Republican National Convention will be in Tampa, Florida, August 27–30, 2012.