The Presidential Election Process

Damian Wulff

It’s Election Time!

• Presidential elections are held every 4 years. The next one is in 2008!

• If someone asked you how the President gets elected, could you explain the process to them?

The Nomination Process

The Candidates are Announced

Candidates must:

be at least 35 years old

be natural born U.S. citizens

have lived here at least 14 years

Off to the Races

• Is it all about the Benjamin’s & the Bumper Stickers?

• Hopefully not, but fundraising and campaigning often begin about 1 year before the actual election.

The Primaries

Think of them as mini elections where voters in each party are saying, “Hey, we think this person should be our nominee.”

Each state has its own primaries - they’re held in the spring of an election year.

Many states hold their primaries on the same day in early March and that day is called Super Tuesday.

The National Conventions

• After all the primaries are over, each party has its own convention where delegates from each state cast votes to officially nominate the person who will represent them in the upcoming National Election.

It’s A Nomination Party!

The Running Mate

• After the Presidential candidate has been nominated, that person must choose someone to run for Vice President.

• The person chosen is usually someone who will appeal to voters the Presidential candidate hasn’t quite won over yet.

Campaigning for Election

• Between the National Conventions and Election Day, candidates campaign to convince us to vote for them.

- TV Commercials

- Public Speeches

- Televised Candidate Debates

- Direct Mailings

- Town hall meetings

- Candidate websites

Election Day!

• This is your chance to help determine the future of our country.

• Every citizen who is 18 years old and registered to vote can cast a ballot for their favorite candidate.

• Get involved! Check out MTVs Rock the Vote

But Wait, There’s More!

• Direct Democracy

– All decisions made directly by majority vote of the citizens

– Citizens can make laws and change leaders just by voting

– People have unlimited power to control their government

• Representative Democracy

- Citizens elect representatives to govern on their behalf - The power of the people is limited by the actions of those representatives

We have a representative democracy here in the USA

One of the ways our power to control the government is

limited is:

The Electoral College

• Each state gets a certain number of “electors” based on how many representatives it has in congress.

• So, states with larger populations get more “electors” than smaller states.

• When you vote on Election Day, you’re really telling the “electors” from your state who you want them to choose for President.

The Electoral College Cont.

• The “electors” from all the states meet in Washington, D.C. in December (about 6 weeks after you vote!) and cast their votes for President.

• They don’t have to vote for the person the people in their state elected, but they almost always do.

• On January 6th (two months after election day!) the electoral votes are counted and the winner finally becomes official.

References:

• GovSpot

• Ben's Guide

• USINFO Photo Gallery