Election+Process

The process of electing a President was set up in the United States Constitution. The Constitution requires a candidate for the presidency to be: At least 35 years old A natural born citizen of the United States A resident of the United States for 14 years
 * Election of the President**

So how does one become President of the United States? The following steps outline the general process for presidential elections.

There are many people who would like to become President. Each of these people have their own ideas about how our government should work. Some of these people can belong to the same political party. That's where primaries and caucuses come in. In these elections, party members get to vote for the candidate that will represent their party in the upcoming general election.
 * Step I: Primaries and Caucuses**

At the end of the primaries and caucuses, each party holds a national convention to finalize the selection of one Presidential nominee. During this time, each Presidential candidate chooses a running-mate (or Vice-Presidential candidate).
 * Step 2: National Conventions**

Now that each party is represented by one candidate, the general election process begins. Candidates campaign throughout the country in an attempt to win the support of voters. Finally in November, the people vote for one candidate. When a person casts a vote in the general election, they are not voting directly for an individual Presidential candidate. Instead, voters in each state actually cast their vote for a group of people, known as electors. These electors are part of the Electoral College and are supposed to vote for their state’s preferred candidate.
 * Step 3: The General (or Popular) Election**

In the Electoral College system, each state gets a certain number of electors, based on each state's total number of representation in Congress. Each elector gets one electoral vote. For example, a large state like California gets 54 electoral votes, while Rhode Island gets only four. All together, there are 538 Electoral votes.
 * Step 4: The Electoral College**

In December (following the general election), the electors cast their votes. When the votes are counted on January 6th, the Presidential candidate that gets more than half (270) wins the election. The President-elect and Vice President-elect take the oath of office and are inaugurated two weeks later, on January 20th.

[|Election Process]
__**HOW THE ELECTORAL COLLEGE WORKS**__ It seems like electing the president should be a pretty simple process. Everybody votes, and whoever gets the most votes becomes president, right? That method, called the **popular vote**, was one of several that the founding fathers of the United States considered when they made up the rules for presidential elections more than **200 years ago**. They didn't pick the popular vote method, however. They went with an **indirect system** called the ** [|Electoral College] **.

Each state has as many electors as it has members in the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives combined. The electoral college thus includes 535 electors from the states, one for each of the 435 members of the House plus one for each of the 100 senators. Another three electors represent the District of Columbia, for a total of 538.

According to the U.S. Constitution, state legislators decide how electors will be chosen in their states. First, each political party in a state nominates a slate (list) of electors. These electors are usually pledged to support the party's nominee for president and vice president. In some states, electors are legally required to vote for their candidate.

Presidential elections take place on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November every four years. On that day voters throughout the nation go to the polls to choose the electors in their states. In many states the names of the electors do not even appear on the ballot. The voters see only the names of the candidates for president and vice president. Nevertheless, voters who favor the Republican (or Democratic) candidate for president actually vote for the Republican (or Democratic) electors in their state. This voting of the people is called the popular vote.

//__****THIS ANSWERS JORDON'S QUESTION FROM CLASS:**__// In 48 of the 50 states, the candidate who receives the most popular votes wins all that state's electoral votes. //__In Maine and Nebraska, the state's electoral votes can be divided among the candidates.__// To be elected president, a candidate needs a majority of all the electoral votes in the country. That is one-half of the total number of votes plus one, or 270.

In most presidential elections, the winner is known by the morning following election day. However, election results do not become official until weeks afterward. The winning electors meet in their state capitals on the Monday after the second Wednesday in December. There they vote for president and vice president. They send the sealed results to Washington. On January 6, the results are read in the presence of the entire Congress. The winner becomes official. Then, on January 20, the president-elect takes the oath of office as president of the United States.