There is an election for the post of President in America today. Today it will be decided who will win between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris, but many people are still confused about when voting will start. So let us tell you when will voting take place in America today as per Indian time.
Voting time in America is from 7 am i.e. if we talk according to Indian time then voting will take place in America from 4:30 pm today. Voting can end by 4:30 am Indian time on Wednesday. A slight difference can be seen in this because the states of America are divided into many different time zones.
How is the new President elected in America, what is the ‘Electoral College’ system
The eyes of the world are on the presidential elections to be held in America on November 5. If you think that in America the President is elected through direct voting by the people, then 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. In 2000, George W. Bush defeated Al Gore. However, Democratic candidate Gore won the popular vote by more than five lakh votes.
This was because of the Electoral College – a unique system of US presidential elections due to which the outcome is not decided directly by the popular vote.
Popular vote is 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.
Now let’s talk about the Electoral College.
On November 5, American voters will vote for Democrat Kamala Harris or Republican Donald Trump, but those votes will not directly determine who wins.
When Americans vote, they are actually voting for the group of electors that will represent their preferences. These electors then vote for President based on the popular vote within their state.
Actually the US Presidential election is a state-by-state contest instead of 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 gain 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 majority in the Electoral College.
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 proportional to its population.
For example, California, the most populous state, has 55 electoral votes, while 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, in 2020, Joe Biden won California, so all 55 of California’s electoral votes went to his account.
Although this does not happen every time. If an elector votes against the presidential candidate of his state, he is called ‘disloyal or faithless’.
In some states, ‘faithless electors’ can be fined or prosecuted. If no candidate wins a majority, the House of Representatives, the lower house of the US legislature, votes to elect the President.
This has happened only once, in 1824, when the Electoral College votes were divided among four candidates so that no one of them could get a majority.
Given the current dominance of the Republican and Democratic parties, this is very unlikely to happen today. The Electoral College system is the most controversial system of American elections. However, its supporters cite some of its advantages such as smaller states remain important for candidates, candidates do not have to travel across the country, and can focus on key states, etc.
While opponents of the Electoral College system argue that under this system the winner of the popular vote can lose the election, some voters feel that their individual vote does not count. Much of the 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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