United States presidential election

For the most recent election, see 2024 United States presidential election.

A ballot for the 2016 presidential election and for other elections that year, listing the presidential and vice presidential candidates
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The election of the president and for vice president of the United States is an indirect election in which citizens of the United States who are registered to vote in one of the fifty U.S. states or in Washington, D.C., cast ballots not directly for those offices, but instead for members of the Electoral College.[note 1] These electors then cast direct votes, known as electoral votes, for president and for vice president. The candidate who receives an absolute majority of electoral votes (at least 270 out of 538, since the Twenty-Third Amendment granted voting rights to citizens of D.C.) is then elected to that office. If no candidate receives an absolute majority of the votes for president, the House of Representatives elects the president; likewise if no one receives an absolute majority of the votes for vice president, then the Senate elects the vice president.

United States presidential elections differ from many other republics around the world (operating under either the presidential system or the semi-presidential system) which use direct elections from the national popular vote ('one person, one vote') of their entire countries to elect their respective presidents. The United States instead uses indirect elections for its president through the Electoral College, and the system is highly decentralized like other elections in the United States.[1] The Electoral College and its procedure are established in the U.S. Constitution by Article II, Section 1, Clauses 2 and 4; and the Twelfth Amendment (which replaced Clause 3 after its ratification in 1804). Under Clause 2, each state casts as many electoral votes as the total number of its Senators and Representatives in Congress, while (per the Twenty-third Amendment, ratified in 1961) Washington, D.C., casts the same number of electoral votes as the least-represented state, which is three. Also under Clause 2, the manner for choosing electors is determined by each state legislature, not directly by the federal government. Many state legislatures previously selected their electors directly, but over time all switched to using votes cast by state voters to choose the state's members of the electoral college (electors). Beyond the parameters set in the U.S. Constitution, state law, not federal, regulates most aspects of administering the popular vote, including most of the voter eligibility and registration requirements.[1][2]

Almost all states edict the winner of the plurality of its constituent statewide popular vote ('one person, one vote') shall receive all of that state's electors ("winner-takes-all'). A couple - Nebraska and Maine - determine a part of their electors by use of district votes within the respective state.

Eighteen states also have specific laws that punish electors who vote in opposition to the plurality, known as "faithless" or "unpledged" electors.[3] In modern times, faithless and unpledged electors have not affected the ultimate outcome of an election, so the results can generally be determined based on the state-by-state popular vote.

In addition, most of the time, the winner as determined by the electoral college also has received the largest part of the national popular vote. There have been four exceptions: 1876, 1888, 2000, and 2016, in which the Electoral College winner's portion of the popular vote was surpassed by an opponent. Although taking fewer votes, the winner claimed more electoral college seats, due to winning close and narrow pluralities in numerous swing states.

In addition, the 1824 election was the only presidential election under the current system decided by a contingent election in Congress that elected a different president than the candidate with a plurality in both the electoral and popular vote. (The 1800 election and the 1824 election were decided in the House. In 1800 the House winner was the candidate who had won a plurality of the popular vote.)[4][5][6][7][8][9]

Presidential elections occur every four years on Election Day, which since 1845 has been the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November.[10][11][12] This date coincides with the general elections of various other federal, state, and local races; since local governments are responsible for managing elections, these races typically all appear on one ballot. The Electoral College electors then formally cast their electoral votes on the first Monday after December 12 at their state's capital. Congress then certifies the results in early January, and the presidential term begins on Inauguration Day, which since the passage of the Twentieth Amendment has been set at January 20.

The nomination process, consisting of the primary elections and caucuses and the nominating conventions, was not specified in the Constitution, but was developed over time by the states and political parties. These primary elections are generally held between January and June before the general election in November, while the nominating conventions are held in the summer. Though not codified by law, political parties also follow an indirect election process, where voters in the fifty states, Washington, D.C., and U.S. territories, cast ballots for a slate of delegates to a political party's nominating convention, who then elect their party's presidential nominee. Each party may then choose a vice presidential running mate to join the ticket, which is either determined by choice of the nominee or by a second round of voting. Because of changes to national campaign finance laws since the 1970s regarding the disclosure of contributions for federal campaigns, presidential candidates from the major political parties usually declare their intentions to run as early as the spring of the previous calendar year before the election (almost 21 months before Inauguration Day).[13]


Cite error: There are <ref group=note> tags on this page, but the references will not show without a {{reflist|group=note}} template (see the help page).

  1. ^ a b Cite error: The named reference NCSL was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  2. ^ Cite error: The named reference whitehouse was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  3. ^ Dixon, Robert G. Jr. (1950). "Electoral College Procedure". The Western Political Quarterly. 3 (2): 214–224. doi:10.2307/443484. JSTOR 443484.
  4. ^ Edwards III, George C. (2011). Why the Electoral College is Bad for America (Second ed.). New Haven and London: Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0-300-16649-1.
  5. ^ Chang, Alvin (November 9, 2016). "Trump will be the 4th president to win the Electoral College after getting fewer votes than his opponent". Vox. Archived from the original on November 10, 2016. Retrieved November 11, 2016.
  6. ^ "2016 Presidential Election". National Archives and Records Administration. Archived from the original on September 20, 2016. Retrieved November 26, 2016.
  7. ^ Cronin, Thomas E. (1979). "The Direct Vote and the Electoral College the Case for Meshing Things Up!". Presidential Studies Quarterly. 9 (2): 144–163. ISSN 0360-4918. JSTOR 27547458. Archived from the original on June 14, 2022. Retrieved June 13, 2022.
  8. ^ "What Is The Winner-Takes-All Rule In The Presidential Election? It's Steeped In Controversy". Bustle. November 3, 2016. Archived from the original on December 21, 2021. Retrieved June 13, 2022.
  9. ^ Tures, John A. (December 9, 2020). "The Electoral College system isn't 'one person, one vote'". The Conversation. Archived from the original on July 31, 2021. Retrieved June 13, 2022.
  10. ^ 3 U.S.C. § 1 and 3 U.S.C. § 21
  11. ^ Caldwell, Leigh Ann (November 4, 2015). "A Viewer's Guide to the Next Year in Presidential Politics". NBC News. Archived from the original on April 25, 2019. Retrieved November 8, 2015.
  12. ^ Cohen, Andrew (October 29, 2012). "Could a Hurricane Like Sandy Postpone the Presidential Election?". The Atlantic. Archived from the original on October 31, 2020. Retrieved November 8, 2015.
  13. ^ Cite error: The named reference WAPOST20150403 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).