How is the presidential election held in America? Know the complete process

US Presidential Elections 2024: The eyes of the world are on the presidential elections to be held in America on November 5. In America, the President is elected through direct voting by the people, so it is not so. In 2016, Hillary Clinton had secured about 28,00,000 more direct popular votes than Donald Trump in the US presidential election, but she had to face defeat. George W. Bush defeated Al Gore in 2000.

According to news agency ‘IANS’, however, Democratic candidate Gore won the popular vote by more than five lakh votes. This happened because of the Electoral College. This is a unique system of US presidential election, due to which the results are not decided directly by popular vote. Popular vote refers to the total number of individual votes cast by citizens across the country. It reflects the direct choice of the people, where every vote is counted equally.

What is the Electoral College?

Now let’s talk about the Electoral College. On November 5, American voters will vote for Democratic candidate Kamala Harris or Republican candidate Donald Trump, but those votes will not directly determine who wins. When Americans vote, they are actually voting for the group of electors who will represent their preferences. These electors then vote for President based on the popular vote within their state.

270 votes needed to win

The US presidential election is a state-by-state contest rather than a national contest. A win in any one of the 50 states means the candidate got all the so-called Electoral College votes. There are a total of 538 Electoral College votes. To win the presidency, a candidate needs to get a majority – 270 or more. His partner becomes the Vice-President. This is the reason why it is possible for a candidate to become President even if he gets less votes in the entire country if he gets the Electoral College majority. Each state gets a fixed number of electors. Electors means those people who vote in the Electoral College. The number of electors in each state is roughly in line with its population.

How does the candidate get all the electoral votes?

For example, if we talk about the most populous state California, it has 55 electoral votes, whereas a small state like Wyoming has only 3. If a candidate wins the popular vote in a state, he usually gets all the electoral votes as well. For example, Joe Biden won California in 2020, so all 55 electoral votes of California went to his account. However, this does not happen every time. If an elector votes against the presidential candidate of his state, he is called ‘disloyal or faithless’.

Faithless elector may be fined

In some states, ‘faithless electors’ can be fined or prosecuted. If no candidate achieves a majority, the House of Representatives (the lower house of the US Parliament) votes to elect the President. This has happened only once in 1824, when the Electoral College votes were divided among four candidates, due to which none of them could get a majority.

The candidate does not need to travel across the country

Given the current dominance of the Republican and Democratic parties, the chances of this happening today are very low. The Electoral College system is the most controversial system of American elections. However, its supporters point to some advantages, such as smaller states remaining important to candidates. Candidates do not need to travel across the country and can focus on key states, while opponents of the Electoral College system argue that under this system the winner of the popular vote may lose the election.

Some voters feel that their individual vote does not matter. Much power resides in the so-called ‘swing states’. Swing states are those states where elections can go in either direction. In presidential elections, the entire emphasis is on these ‘swing states’.

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