Головна

General Elections

  1. A GENERAL OUTLINE FOR A DRAFT REVISION OF THE TREATIES
  2. Conflicts of interest generally (unrelated to the practice of law)
  3. General
  4. General
  5. GENERAL
  6. GENERAL ELECTIONS

On the Tuesday following the first Monday in November, voters cast their ballots for president and vice president. A party's presidential and vice presidential candidates are voted for as a team, not individually. The entire House of Representatives, one third of the Senate, and many state and local officials are also elected at this time. Thanks to voting machines and computers, Americans usually know most of the winners by late evening. In fact, the television networks often predict the results of an election as soon as the polls close. They do this by conducting exit polls - asking voters in scientifically selected precincts how they voted.

The president and vice president are not usually chosen by how many people vote for them (the popular vote); instead, they are chosen by electoral votes. Altogether, there are 538 electoral votes; it takes 270 (a majority) to win. When citizens cast votes for presidential and voce presidential candidates, they are selecting their state's elector (people chosen under state laws and procedures to cast each state's votes for president and vise president). Each elector is expected (although not legally required) to vote for the candidate who wins the majority of the popular votes in that state. These electors as a group are called the Electoral College.

The number of electors for each state is equal to the total number of representatives and senators who represent that state in Congress. Thus, states with larger populations have more electoral votes, e.g. California, the most populous state, has 55 electoral votes. A few small states and the District of Columbia have only three. In all but two states, Maine and Nebraska, the College works on a winner-takes-all-basisand a candidate who receives the largest number of popular votes receives all of a state's electoral votes. With this system, it is possible for a candidate to receive more popular votes than an opponent but fewer electoral votes, and, therefore, lose the election. This can happen when a candidate loses by small margins in states with many electoral votes and wins with by large margins in states with few electoral votes (as shown in the chart below.)

Only three American presidents have reached the White House by losing the popular vote but winning the majority of electoral votes. This happened in 2000, when George W. Bush was elected. When the Electoral College votes, it is also possible, in some states, for an elector not to cast his ballot for the candidate who won the popular vote in that state. However, since electors are important members of their political parties, this rarely happens.

 



Контрольная работа 1 | Primaries: Selecting the Candidates

The courts | The people in a court | The courts and society | Jurisdiction of the Federal Courts | Civil Law | Guiding Principles of the American Legal System | GENERAL ELECTIONS | Vocabulary | N O T E S | Exercises |

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