United States presidential election determines who serves as president and vice president of the United States for a four-year term, starting at midday on Inauguration Day, which is January 20 of the year after the election. The elections are conducted by the various states and not by the federal government.

The presidential election occurs quadrennially. The most recent election o...

United States presidential election determines who serves as president and vice president of the United States for a four-year term, starting at midday on Inauguration Day, which is January 20 of the year after the election. The elections are conducted by the various states and not by the federal government.

The presidential election occurs quadrennially. The most recent election occurred on November 2, 2004. The next election is scheduled for November 4, 2008. Elections are held on Election Day—the Tuesday after the first Monday in November of every fourth year.

Constitutionally, the election is by United States Electoral College electors, who are chosen by methods each state individually establishes. The electors can vote for anyone, but with rare exceptions they vote for the designated candidates and their votes are certified by Congress in early January. The Congress is the final judge of the electors; the last serious dispute was in 1877.

How elections are administered

The election of the president is governed by Section 1 of Article Two of the United States Constitution, as amended by Amendments XII, XXII, and XXIII. The president and vice president are elected on the same ticket by the Electoral College, whose members are selected from each state; the president and vice president serve four-year terms.

Elections take place every four years on the first Tuesday following the first Monday of November (although in many states early and absentee voting begins several weeks before Election Day). The elections are run by local election boards who ensure the fair and impartial nature of the election and prevent tampering of the results.

Neither the constitution, nor the XII, XXII, and XXIII amendments describe the manner for states to select their electoral college representatives. This means then that individual citizens are not granted the right to vote for president by the federal government but rather by their respective state or local governments. This does not mean the current system is unconstitutional; it is just not constitutionally protected and individual states do have a right therefore to bar their citizens from voting for President.

[edit] Ballot candidates

Voters are required to vote on a ballot where they select the candidate of their choice. The presidential ballot is actually voting "for the electors of a candidate" meaning that the voter is not actually voting for the candidate, but endorsing members of the Electoral College who will, in turn, directly elect the President.

Many voting ballots allow a voter to "blanket vote" for all candidates in a particular political party or to select individual candidates on a line by line voting system. Which candidates appear on the voting ticket is determined through a legal process known as ballot access. Usually, the size of the candidate's political party and the results of the major nomination conventions determine who is pre-listed on the presidential ballot. Thus, the presidential election ticket will not list every single candidate running for President, but only those who have secured a major party nomination or whose size of their political party warrants having been formally listed. Laws are in effect to have other candidates pre-listed on a ticket, provided that a sufficient number of voters have endorsed the candidate, usually through a signature list. Never, however, in U.S. history has a 3rd party candidate for president secured a place on the election ticket in this fashion.[citation needed]

The final way to be elected for president is to have one's name written in at the time of election as a write-in candidate. This is used for candidates who did not fulfill the legal requirements to be pre-listed on the voting ticket. It is also used by voters to express a distaste for the listed candidates, by writing in a ridiculous candidate for president such as Mickey Mouse or Darth Vader. In any event, a write-in candidate has never won an election for President of the United States.

[edit] The 1824 scenario

An 1824 scenario occurs when no candidate receives enough electoral votes to win the election. In such a case, the president and vice president of the United States are chosen per the 12th Amendment. The selection of president is decided by a ballot of the House of Representatives. For the purposes of electing the president, each state only has one vote. A second ballot of the Senate is held to choose the vice president. In this ballot, each senator has one vote. The 1824 scenario is named for the presidential election of 1824, in which Andrew Jackson received a plurality, but not a majority, of electoral votes cast; when the presidential election was thrown to the House of Representatives, John Quincy Adams was elected to the presidency. The year 1824 is not the only time in which the vote has gone to the House of Representatives: in Jefferson's 1800 election, Aaron Burr, Jefferson's vice presidential candidate, received the same number of electoral votes as Jefferson and challenged Jefferson's election to the office. In the end, Jefferson was chosen as the president thanks to Alexander Hamilton's sway in the house of representatives. This created a deep rivalry between the two statesmen resulting in the famous 1804 duel.

[edit] Presidential election trends

In recent decades, one of the presidential nominees of the Democratic and Republican parties has almost always been an incumbent president or a sitting or former vice president. When the candidate has not been a president or vice president, nominees of the two main parties have been state Governors or U.S. Senators. The last nominee from either party who had not previously served in such an office was General Dwight D. Eisenhower, who won the Republican nomination and ultimately the presidency in the 1952 election.

Contemporary electoral success has favored state governors. Of the last five presidents, four (Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton and George W. Bush) have been governors of a state (all except for George H. W. Bush). Geographically, these presidents were from either very large states (California, Texas) or from a state south of the Mason-Dixon Line and east of Texas (Georgia, Arkansas). The last sitting U.S. Senator to be elected president was John F. Kennedy of Massachusetts in 1960. The only other sitting senator to be elected was Warren G. Harding in 1920, whereas major-party candidate Senators Andrew Jackson (1824), Lewis Cass (1848), Stephen Douglas (1860), Barry Goldwater (1964), George McGovern (1972), Walter Mondale (1984), Bob Dole (1996), and John Kerry (2004) all lost their elections.

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Hi, I will do my best.

Well, it really depends on the office you are running for. But In order to run for office there are usually 2 methods. One is to be appointed to the position or appointed to run by an elected official. Usually this is something like district court judge positions. For senate and/or congress type positions you decide to run for the office. You then need to be "chosen&...

Hi, I will do my best.

Well, it really depends on the office you are running for. But In order to run for office there are usually 2 methods. One is to be appointed to the position or appointed to run by an elected official. Usually this is something like district court judge positions. For senate and/or congress type positions you decide to run for the office. You then need to be "chosen" by the party you wish to run on (republican, conservative, democrat, liberal, independant, and so on.) Most times you would need to have people sign a petition saying that they want you to run. It is not a promise to vote for you, just that they want you to run. Once you have the petition signed, you can now run under a certain party if the party chooses to have you run for them.

Not sure how deep you want to go but the senate has 2 seats per state. The congress has multiple seats per state broken down by district within the state, and the number for the state/district is done by population.

For presidential races if you wish to run you must be endorsed by a party (see above). You can also run as an independent. The party then holds a primary (currently running) where say you are a registered republican, you would go and vote for your choice of candidates to be the one and only candidate to run in your party at the presidential election. Some states do allow registered indepenents to vote for someone in either party. Each state gets a certain number of "delegate" votes based on population in the primaries so as each state holds the primaries, the candidate that wins a state gets a certain number of votes. once all the states vote, a 'convention' is held for that party and the delegates vote for the candidate that that state voted for. As an example, let's say Idaho gets 2 delegates. If Clinton wins Idaho, then 2 delegates go to the convention and vote for Clinton. Of course we all know the outcome before the convention because of election results. however I do believe in theory a delegate can vote as he/she wishes.

A party may not have a primary if the party chooses only one candidate. This happens when a sitting president wants to run for re-election.

Once a candidate is chosen in each party, then the general election is held in November for the president with one candidate from each party on the ballet. However the votes are broken down by state and each state gets a certain number of electorates ("electoral College"). Again, if a candidate wins a state, they then get that states number of electorate votes. once all the states electorates are added up, the person with the most electorate votes wins. It is possible as happened 2 votes ago that a candidate can lose the popular vote but still win because he won more electoral votes. This has only happened a few times throughout the over 200 years of our country.

You didn't as about terms but there are terms for each position and sometimes limits are applied. For example, a presidents term is 4 years and can only run once for re-election for a max of 8 years. Senators have terms (I think 2 years) but have no term limits meaning they can run over and over again.

I hope that answered your question.

John

In simplified terms, here's how it happens:


States Select Delegates
Most states use a presidential primary to select delegates. Some use a series of caucuses and conventions. Candidates are chosen at local caucuses, narrowed at district conventions and finalized at state conventions. Delegat...

In simplified terms, here's how it happens:


States Select Delegates
Most states use a presidential primary to select delegates. Some use a series of caucuses and conventions. Candidates are chosen at local caucuses, narrowed at district conventions and finalized at state conventions. Delegates from each state go to national conventions, where they announce the party's official candidate.

The People Vote
On the Tuesday after the first Monday in November, the American people vote. In general, the president is elected in a two-step process. The first step is carried out by the electorate of the nation and the second by a group of people called the "Presidential Electors." The system, the Electoral College System, is designed to ensure the indirect election of the president. For general information about the system, visit the National Archives Electoral College exhibit.

Citizens Select Electors
Citizens vote for the presidential and vice presidential team of their choice, but are really selecting "electors" who will actually elect the president and vice president of the United States. The chosen electors of each state will meet on the first Monday after the second Wednesday in December to cast their votes for president and vice president.

Electors Elect!
A president is elected if he or she receives an absolute majority of the electoral votes cast. If no majority is received, the House of Representatives selects the winner from the top three candidates. The vice president is selected in the same fashion, but in a separate vote. If no candidate receives the majority vote, the United States Senate selects the winner from the top two candidates.

Anyone who meets the requirements listed in the Constitution (at least 35 years old, born in the U.S. and has lived in the U.S. for at least 14 years) can run for President. Those who can actually raise enough money to pay for a campaign are the ones who declare to run for office. This happens about a year and a half before the election.

Between delcaring running for office and primaries, candidates gain suppor...

Anyone who meets the requirements listed in the Constitution (at least 35 years old, born in the U.S. and has lived in the U.S. for at least 14 years) can run for President. Those who can actually raise enough money to pay for a campaign are the ones who declare to run for office. This happens about a year and a half before the election.

Between delcaring running for office and primaries, candidates gain support by speaking to people around the country.

Although winning a primary doesn't have an effect on the winner, they are important because they give information about whether a current candidate has a chance of winning the election. After early primaries, or "pretend state elections," a few candidates drop out of the race because they know they do not have a chance at winning.

Although it is important for candidates to gain support from regular people like you and me, they must also get support from people who will act as electors in the election. Electors are important people from each state, such as the governor, who pledge to vote for a candidate. The number of electors from each state depends on the population of the state. Their vote is counted in the electoral college, not the popular vote, or the one done by common people.

The electoral college is a complicated process originally set up because the country was filled with illiterate people who would vote for the president. Through the electoral college, we actually vote for the electors who in turn vote for the president they said they would.

Both the popular vote and the elctoral vote are counted and usually the person with the higher poular vote wins. However, it is possible to lose the popular vote but win the presidency, which happened in 2000.

Because there a total of 538 electoral votes, a candidate must get 270 votes(a majority) to win the electoral college. In the race between George W. Bush and Al Gore, Al Gore won more states (a state is won by gaining the majority of the electoral votes from that state) but the states he won had fewer electors. Bush won states such as Texas, which has more electors because it has a large population. Generally, however, the candidate whop wins the poular vote wins the presidency.

If neither candidate gets at least 270 votes, the House of Representatives, made up of 435 people, decides.

Once a candidate wins, they are sworn in on January 20th. The have a four year term and they can run twice (for a total of 8 years).

If you need any more information about the way the government runs, such as the court system or Congress, I can probably help you.

You stated that you didn't want a bunch of links....However, I provide you some links from Youtube...These are 101 subjects relates to your subject.. If you click on them, perhaps you may get a better understanding visually of the United States Presential Elections.

This is my definition...
What are the steps for presidential candidates?
...

You stated that you didn't want a bunch of links....However, I provide you some links from Youtube...These are 101 subjects relates to your subject.. If you click on them, perhaps you may get a better understanding visually of the United States Presential Elections.

This is my definition...
What are the steps for presidential candidates?

The candidate announces his candidacy and works toward public awareness, fund-raising, and developing a set of issue stances.
The primary season (which went from January until June) is characterized by the candidates battling each other within their parties
The primaries decide the number of delegates for each candidate at the convention, where the candidate wins his party's nomination. The candidate also selects his running mate around the time of the conventions.
The "general election" season is characterized by battling between the Democrats and Republicans
The general election is in Nov. Whoever wins the most electoral votes becomes president.
The president-elect sworn in January.

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US Politics 101 (part one)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v...

US Politics 101 (part 2)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v...

NH for Dummies - 2008 NH Primary
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v...Here is a Question and Answer Cite that may be some interested to
FAQ: How does the election system work?
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22...