How Elections Happen
Contents:
Elections are an exciting and interesting time. They determine who our president will be for the next 4 years, and whether people care about one issue or another. But how exactly do they work?
First, a candidate has to announce their candidacy and file it with the Federal Election Commission. If they do not, they are not eligible for ballot access.
If they are part of a party, the candidate has to participate in primary elections, which determine the party’s nominee for the race. There are two kinds of voting in a primary election.
The first is simply called “primary.” It’s the normal type of voting, where you go into a booth and fill out an electronic or paper ballot.
The second type is called a caucus. They are public votes held in large rooms. Votes are counted by people taking literal sides of a room, kind of like how students go to one side of the room or another in homeroom activities. There, the two sides debate, people switch sides, and then the final count happens.
Parties can choose what type will be held in which state for their respective primary elections.
You might think all is done now. A candidate wins a state, and the person with the most states wins. However, that’s not exactly right. You see, people vote not directly for the candidate, but for people known as delegates, assigned pretty much proportionally. These delegates then vote for the candidate in a big party meeting known as a national convention. The person who gets the most delegates votes wins the party’s nomination.
After the primaries, the candidates selected by the parties and the independents face off. There are two stages to the final presidential election.
The first stage is the popular vote. This is when people like you and me vote, where you go into a booth and fill out an electronic or paper ballot.
The second stage is the electoral college. Just like a national convention and delegates for primaries, voters elect people called electors (who represent the majority decision in the state), who in turn elect the president. (For more information, go to my "The (Why-Is-US-So-Weird) Electoral College" article.)
There are some complications, however, in the electoral college. First, electors are not required to elect the candidate their state voted for. Second, a state’s number of electors are chosen by adding the number of House representatives and senators the state has. If you divide the population of, say Texas, by its electors, the result is less than the population-elector ratio of Vermont. This means a voter in Vermont has more power than a voter in Texas. These two reasons can result in a candidate not being elected by most of the people, but still becoming president.
So there you have it! The process of electing a president!
Image credit: https://www.politico.com/story/2008/11/why-obama-won-015301