Bilbo's Quick-and-Dirty Guide to American Elections

A while back Yo, who blogs at Etcetera, posted a comment to my blog asking if I could explain the American election system. He thought that I might be able to explain it so he could understand it. While I appreciate the implied compliment, a full explanation of American elections is beyond the scope of an average post...but I'll try to summarize it as best I can for Yo and for other readers outside the United States who are mystified by our system. There's a very good, very detailed explanation of our Electoral College system on Wikipedia which will give you much more information...for now, here's Bilbo's short summary...

The fundamentals of our system of elections are set forth in the Constitution. First of all, it's important to remember that in this country, we don't elect our president by direct popular vote...when we vote for a particular candidate, what we're actually voting for are the members of the Electoral College from our state who actually cast votes for the candidates. Each state receives a number of electors equal to the total number of its representatives in Congress (one for each Senator and Representative, plus three for the District of Columbia). Remember this...we'll come back to it later.

The presidential election season traditionally begins early in the election year (2008 is the next one), when the individual states hold their primary elections or caucuses. These help to winnow down the roster of potential candidates and establish the front-runners, who are then nominated by the state delegations at the national conventions of the major political parties in late summer. Ideally, the candidates who won the majority of the party votes in the primaries and caucuses emerge as their party's candidate for the national election. Once nominated by the party conventions, the candidates select their running mates (vice-presidential candidates), usually on the basis of a desire to "balance" the ticket (one from the northern states and one from the southern, for example), and the campaign begins in earnest.

The actual election is held on the first Tuesday in November. Registered voters (every citizen over 18 years of age is eligible to vote, unless they are a convicted felon) go to their local voting station (mine is at the local elementary school) and cast their votes for the candidate of their choice.

The results of the popular vote are closely tracked at the state level, because what determines the outcome of the election is not the nationwide popular vote, but the winner of the popular vote in each state. The candidate who "wins" each state "wins" the votes of the members of the Electoral College from that state. The total number of electors is presently 538, and a candidate must win a majority of them (currently 270) to win the presidency. A criticism of this system is that candidates spend most of their time wooing the residents of the states with the most electoral votes, to the detriment of the smaller states, but so far there's been no serious effort to change the system. You may remember that in the presidential election of 2000, Al Gore actually won the popular vote, but George W. Bush won the election on the basis of electoral votes.

So, at the end of Election Day, the votes are tallied and the numbers of electoral votes for each candidate tabulated. The winner is generally known at this point, but the election is not official until the Electoral College meets and the electors formally cast their votes. At this point, the new president and vice-president are officially named and the planning for the inauguration and accompanying parties begins. The new president takes the oath of office and assumes his (or her!) position on Inauguration Day (January 20th)...and the nation breathes a sigh of relief that it's all over.

Okay, that's Bilbo's Quick-and-Dirty Guide to the American presidential election process. There may be some minor errors, but that's essentially how it works. Yo, and other readers in other countries, I hope this clarifies things for you. If you have specific questions, there is a lot of information available on the Internet both at Wikipedia and at the official websites of the U.S. government. Or you can ask me (by e-mail to bilbo_the_blogger@yahoo.com) and I'll try to answer it for you.

Wish us luck as we start into the new campaigning season. We'll need it.

Have a good day. More thoughts tomorrow.

Bilbo