How the President Is Elected - The Electoral Process

So you want to be president of the United States. You should know: Making it to the White House is a daunting task, logistically speaking. Understanding how the president is elected should be your first priority. There are volumes of campaign finance rules to navigate, thousands of signatures to gather across all 50 states, delegates of the pledged and unpledged varieties to glad-hand, and the dreaded Electoral College to deal with. If you’re ready to jump into the fray, let’s walk through the 11  key milestones  of how the president is elected in the United States. Step 1: Meeting the Eligibility Requirements Presidential candidates must be able to prove they are a â€Å"natural born citizen† of the U.S., have lived in the country for at least 14 years and are at least 35 years old. Being â€Å"natural born† doesn’t mean you have to have been born on American soil, either. If one of your parents is an American citizen, that’s good enough. Children whose parents are American citizens are considered â€Å"are natural born citizens,† regardless of whether they’re born in Canada, Mexico or Russia. If you meet those three basic requirements for being president, you can move on to the next step. Step. 2: Declaring Your Candidacy and Forming a Political Action Committee It’s time to get with the Federal Election Commission, which regulates elections in the United States. Presidential candidates must complete a â€Å"statement of candidacy† by stating their party affiliation, the office they’re seeking and some personal information such as where they live. Dozens of candidates complete these forms in every presidential election — candidates most Americans never hear and who are from obscure, lesser-known and unorganized political parties. That statement of candidacy also requires presidential hopefuls to designate a political action committee, an entity that solicits money from supporters to spend on television ads and other methods of electioneering, as their â€Å"principal campaign committee.† All that means is the candidate is authorizing one or more PACs to receive contributions and make expenditures on their behalf. Presidential candidates spend much of their time trying to raise money. In the 2016 presidential election, for example, Republican Donald Trump’s principal campaign committee — Donald J. Trump for President Inc. — raised about $351 million, according to Federal Election Commission records. Democrat Hillary Clinton’s principal campaign committee — Hillary for America — raised $586 million.    Step 3:  Getting on the Primary Ballot  In As Many States As Possible This is one of the most little-known details of of how the president is elected: To become a major party’s presidential nominee, candidates must go through the primary process in every state. Primaries are elections held by political parties in most states to narrow the field of candidates seeking the nomination to one. A few states hold more informal elections called caucuses. Taking part in primaries is essential to winning delegates, which is necessary to winning the presidential nomination. And to take part in the primaries, you’ve got to get on the ballots in each state. The entails presidential candidates collecting a specific number of signatures in each state — in bigger states they need hundreds of thousands of signatures — if they want their names to appear on the ballot. So the point is: every legitimate presidential campaign must have a solid organization of supporters in each that will work to meet these ballot-access requirements.  If they come up short in even one state, theyre leaving potential delegates on the table. Step 4:  Winning Delegates to the Convention Delegates are the people who attend their parties’ presidential nomination conventions to cast votes on behalf of the candidates who won the primaries in their states. Thousands of delegates attend both the Republican and Democratic national conventions to perform this arcane task. Delegates are often political insiders, elected officials or grassroots activists. Some delegates are â€Å"committed† or â€Å"pledged† to a particular candidate, meaning they must vote for the winner of the state primaries; others are uncommitted and can cast their ballots however they choose. There are also â€Å"superdelegates,† high-ranking elected officials, who get to support the candidates of their choice. Republicans seeking the presidential nomination in the 2016 primaries, for example, needed to secure 1,144 delegates. Trump crossed the threshold when he won the North Dakota primary in May 2016. Democrats seeking the presidential nomination that year needed 2,383. Hillary Clinton reached the goal in June 2016 following the Puerto Rico primary. Step 5:  Picking a Running-Mate    Before the nominating convention takes place, most presidential candidates have chosen a vice presidential candidate, the person who will appear on the November ballot with them. Only twice in modern history have the presidential nominees waited until the conventions to break the news to the public and their parties. The party’s presidential nominee has typically chosen his running mate in July or August of a presidential election years. Step 6:  Doing the Debates The Commission on Presidential Debates holds three presidential debates and one vice-presidential debate after the primaries and before the November election. While the debates typically don’t influence the outcome of elections or cause major shifts in voter preferences, they are critical to understanding where candidates stand on important issues and evaluating their ability to perform under pressure. A bad performance can sink a candidacy, though it rarely happens anymore because politicians are coached on their answers and have become skilled at skirting controversy. The exception was the first-ever televised presidential debate, between  Vice President  Richard M. Nixon,  a Republican,  and U.S. Sen.  John F. Kennedy, a Democrat, during the 1960 campaign. Nixons appearance was described as being green, sallow and he appeared to be  need of a clean shave. Nixon believed the first televised presidential debate to be just another campaign appearance and did not take it seriously; he was   Ã¢â‚¬â€¹pale, sickly looking and sweaty, an appearance the helped to seal his demise.  Kennedy knew the event was momentous and rested beforehand. He won the election. Step 7:  Understanding  Election Day What happens on that  Tuesday after the first Monday of November in a presidential election year is one of the most misunderstood facets of how the president is elected. The bottom line is this: voters do not directly elect the president of the United States. They instead choose electors who meet later to vote for a president. Electors are people chosen by the political parties in each state. There are 538 of them. A candidate needs a simple majority — votes from 270 of those electors — to win. States are allotted electors based on their population. The larger a states population is, the more electors is is allocated. For example, California is the most populous state with about 38 million residents. It also holds the most electors at 55. Wyoming, on the other hand, is the least populous state with fewer than 600,000 residents; it gets only three electors. According to the National Archives and Records Administration: â€Å"Political parties often choose electors for the slate to recognize their service and dedication to that political party. They may be state elected officials, state party leaders, or people in the state who have a personal or political affiliation with their partys presidential candidate.† Step 8: Picking Up Electors and Electoral Votes When a presidential candidate wins the popular vote in a state, he wins electoral votes from that state. In 48 out of 50 states, the successful candidates collects all electoral votes from that state. This method of awarding electoral votes is commonly known as winner-take-all. In two states, Nebraska and Maine, the electoral votes are distributed proportionally; they allocate their electoral votes to the presidential candidates based on which did better in each congressional district. While those electors are not legally bound to vote for the candidate who won the popular vote in their state, it is rare for them to go rogue and disregard the will of voters. â€Å"Electors generally hold a leadership position in their party or were chosen to recognize years of loyal service to the party,† according to the National Archives and Records Administration. â€Å"Throughout our history as a nation, more than 99 percent of electors have voted as pledged.† Step 9:  Understanding the Role of the Electoral College Presidential candidates who win 270 or more electoral votes are called the president-elect. They don’t actually take office that day. And they can’t take office until the 538 members of the Electoral College gets together to cast votes. The meeting of the Electoral College takes place in December, after the election, and after state governors receive the â€Å"certified† election results and prepares   Certificates of Ascertainment for the federal government. The electors meet in their own states and then deliver the tallies to the vice president; the secretary of the Department of State in each state; the national archivist; and the presiding judge in the districts where the electors held their meetings. Then, in late December or early January after the presidential election, the federal archivist and representatives from the Office of the Federal Register meet with the Secretary of the Senate and the Clerk of the House to verify the results. Congress then meets in a joint session to announce the results. Step 10: Getting Through Inauguration Day Jan. 20 is the day every aspiring president looks forward to. It is the day and time prescribed in the U.S. Constitution for the peaceful transition of power from one administration to another. It is tradition for the outgoing president and his family to attend the swearing-in of the incoming president, even if they are from different parties. There are other traditions, too. The president leaving office often write a note to the incoming president offering encouraging words and well wishes. Congratulations on a remarkable run, Obama wrote in a letter to Trump. Millions have placed their hopes in you, and all of us, regardless of party, should hope for expanded prosperity and security during your tenure. 11. Taking Office This, of course, is the final step. And then the hard part begins.