[kish404]

Now that, Super Tuesday is over and results are out, I would like to give an account of US presidential elections, primaries, caucuses and more.

As we all know US is one of the largest democracies of the world, I wondered when I learnt about the internal democracy in place in their political party system as against the "High Command" system of India.

US is a presidential democracy in which president is elected INDIRECTLY for every four years. But the process of election starts one year before the ongoing president steps down as the president. The different phases involves:

1) Selection of presidential nominee from both the parties in the national conventions held in fag August(Democrates) and early September(Republicans).

2) Campaigning of both parties having selected their presidential nominees.

3) Election of Electoral College who chooses president.

4) Election of the president by the electoral college.

5) Disbanding Electoral College.

Explanation:
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The two major parties in US are democrats and republicans. The candidates who want to be nominated as preisdential contestents in both parties will form a core group and after assertaining their pros and cons, their capacity to raise money from people they register themselves with their parties as preisidential nominees from their parties. Generally more than two people will opt for that and there is inevitable competition among the members contesting for presidential nomination from the party. And there raises curtain for the PRIMARIES and CAUCUSES.

So now, What is a primary and what is caucus? How do they differ?
In a primary, voters simply cast their ballot and then go on with the rest of their day. But a caucus in more participative, with supporters showing up in person at designated sites throughout the state, such as a high school gymnasium, and standing up to be counted for their candidate.

In both, voters are ultimately choosing delegates to their party’s national convention, the body that formally nominates their presidential candidate.

State legislatures and state parties determine which form of balloting they prefer. In some states such as New Hampshire, the primary has become well entrenched and legislators are not likely to switch to a different system.

National Convention
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It is a quadrennial event at which the party formally nominates its presidential and vice presidential candidates. Then the question comes WHO nominates these presidential nominees? The answer to which is National convention delegates.

National convention delegates are those individuals authorized by the national and state parties to attend the parties’ national conventions and cast votes for the candidates running for the respective party’s nomination for President.

Each national party apportions a specific number of delegate votes to the various states and territories, based on state population and complex calculations of party strength and support in recent elections.

So, national convention delegates are PLEDGED to cast their ballot according to the results of primaries and caucuses. An associated press tracks all this process.
There are unpledged delegates too in both the parties who are free to cast their votes either of the candidates in the national party convention. These includes, mambers of congress, former president, vice-president etc..

Also, both the parties differ in the pledged and unpledged allocations and process as a whole. the process differs from state to state too.

After such an elaborate process, the presidential nominees are ready for actual contest. And now, the campaign starts for the presidential election.

The Election process:
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Voters in each state and in the District of Columbia will be casting their ballots on Nov. 4, 2008 for a slate of electors. Those electors, in turn, will cast votes on Dec. 15, 2008 for candidates to whom they are pledged.

For example, On the California ballot, for instance, will be a slate of 55 California Democratic electors pledged to the Democratic presidential candidate and a slate of 55 California Republican electors pledged to the Republican candidate.

A voter will chose one slate or the other (or perhaps the slate of a third party such as the Green Party). And the voter need not know the names of the members og eletoral college which consists of 538 members. It needs 270 electoral votes to win the presidency.

And one key issue here is: Again taking above california example, there are 55 electoral college members. Let us assume Democrat candidate got 28 votes and republican got 27 seats. Whoever wins the state will be allocated TOTAL number of electoral seats, in our example total 55 electoral members are pledged to Democratic candidate only. This is the most criticised issue because it gives scope to a candidate with no popular support to win as a president of USA.

[Ruchi_S]

Voters in each state and in the District of Columbia will be casting their ballots on Nov. 4, 2008 for a slate of electors. Those electors, in turn, will cast votes on Dec. 15, 2008 for candidates to whom they are pledged.




And one key issue here is: Again taking above california example, there are 55 electoral college members. Let us assume Democrat candidate got 28 votes and republican got 27 seats. Whoever wins the state will be allocated TOTAL number of electoral seats, in our example total 55 electoral members are pledged to Democratic candidate only. This is the most criticised issue because it gives scope to a candidate with no popular support to win as a president of USA.

Hi Kishore,

I have a small doubt. Hope you can resolve it.
You have written that the electors are elected by the voters directly who further vote for the presidential candidate. But again you have written that once in a state, a party gets the majority of electors, the total number of electors goes to that party and further he total of this number decides who wins the presidential election.

"It needs 270 electoral votes to win the presidency."
Since the electors' vote is already pledged, doesn't it make the election a one step process. Also, in Pub Ad, we study that American elections in reality are indirect only in theory but in practice they have become direct.

Please shed some light on this matter.

Thanks again for this wonderful article.

Ruchi.

[kish404]

Ruchi,

There are two steps in US presidetial election.

Step 1:

Electing Presidential candidate WITHIN a party. Here electors are pledged and have to cast their vote as per their pledging in the national conference held by respective parties separately. With this all the pledging stuff is over and one presidential candidate emerges from each party. The first sentence that you have highlighted pertains to this step. I think I put this in General Election section and hence the confusion.

STEP 2:

This is the contest BETWEEN the party candidates who are already elected as presidential nominees from their respective parties in the above step. Who ever wins takes presidentship.

Here people have to choose 538 electors who in turn elects the president. This way it is a indirect election.

But while voting all these electors people need not know their names, i.e., who are all there in the electoral college and to whom they are voting. They just vote to either democratic candidate or republican candidate. This way it is becoming a direct election and that is what we read in pubad.

Here the example that I have given holds good. In 48 of the 50 states there is a system of "Who ever wins takes all" , which means suppose a democratic candidate gets majority in a state of california which has 55 electors then all the 55 electors will be allocated to the democratic candidate. This way they count the total number of electors support attained by each candidate and whoever gets 270 (simple majority of the total electoral college) takes away presidentship.

Hope this clarifies your doubt. If not, feel free to pose more questions.

[aspirant2007]

Hope this will explain rest of the process,
1. The winning electors of a state (who are directly elected by voters of each state) meet at their state's capital and cast their votes. (in this case, 55 electors of California state meet at Scramento and cast two vote, one for President and one for Vise President).
2. The candidates (for President and Vice President) who get the majority of votes of these electors in a state, win all the electors votes of that state. (so if Democrats gets 28 elector votes in California, all the vote count of California, i.e. 55, will be for Democrats). So when the presiding officer of the Congress open the ballot of California, it will be for a Democrat president cndidate. This provision strenghens the federal characteristc of the U.S.; a state is represented as unit in the Presidentil election.
3. Similar method is followed in other states.
4. Now, total membership of the Senate = 100 (regardless of its population one state sends two senators, Clifornia also send 2 senators), total membership of the House of Representatives = 435 (each state send representative proportion to its population, California send higest, 53, representatives), District of Columbia (in Presidential election only) is treated as a state, so it has 3 electors votes. So totla number of electors in presidential and vise presidential election are = 538. The candidate who gets 270 elector votes will be the President.
5. These 538 votes are sent to the Congress (joint session) where the presiding officer opens the sealed enevlope and counte them. The candidate who gets the majority of votes (270) is elected. If no candidate get the majority, the member of House of Representative elect the President form the top three cndidates.
Each state sends number of House of Representatives in the Congress in proportion to its population, this gives the Presential election/federal setup a popularistic character. The presidential election system of the U.S. is complicated due to its federal setup. The federation evolved due to an agreement among different states. During its formation each state demanded equal representation in presidential election also, while some of the constitution makers wanted the president to be elected by national popular vote. So the compromises were made and this complicated “arranged marriage” was done which has its own drawbacks.
Any improvement or correction is most welcome. Thanks