The electoral system in the USA has many peculiarities. How does the election work? What do the polls say? t-online gives an overview.
Presidential elections are held in the USA every four years, the next one on November 5, 2024. The candidates for the presidency are determined in the primaries of the two major parties – the Republicans and the Democrats. At the same time, the House of Representatives is completely re-elected in the US Congress, as are 34 of the 100 senators. The winner of the election will then be sworn into office on January 20, 2025.
video | Simply explained: How the electoral system works in the USA
Source: epd
The day of the presidential election always falls on a Tuesday. This regulation dates back to a law from 1845. It stipulated that the election always takes place on the Tuesday after the first Monday in November. At the time, this day of the week was the best for people who often worked in agriculture. After church on Sunday, there was enough time to drive to the polling stations, which were usually far away. Today, Tuesday is inconvenient for most people because they would have to vote during working hours.
In principle, both the Republicans and the Democrats choose their presidential candidates through what are known as primaries. In these primaries, which are held in all 50 states, all potential presidential candidates of a party compete against each other and compete for so-called delegates. These delegates then cast their vote for the candidate who won the state they represent at their party’s nominating convention. In some cases, however, the electoral votes are distributed according to the election results in the respective state.
At the nominating conventions, the candidate who received the majority of delegates in the primaries is given the presidential nomination. The Democrats have another special feature, namely the so-called superdelegates. The superdelegates are high-ranking representatives of the Democratic Party, such as governors, former presidents and members of Congress. They are not bound by the voting results of the primaries and can choose who they support. However, they can only cast their vote if none of the candidates received more delegates after the primaries have ended.
However, there was a special situation for the Democrats this year, as the actual winner of the primaries and incumbent President Joe Biden withdrew his candidacy after the primaries ended. This meant that all delegates who had sworn in to Biden up to that point were free to vote for another candidate. Biden’s Vice President Kamala Harris managed to win the most delegates at the subsequent nominating convention. Donald Trump was able to prevail again among the Republicans.
So far, only one TV debate between Harris and Trump has been announced, and that is today, September 10th at 9 p.m. (September 11th at 3 a.m. CEST). The debate will be hosted by the US broadcaster ABC in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It is uncertain whether there will be further TV debates. The two candidates for the role of Vice President, JD Vance and Tim Walz, will meet on October 1st on CBS.
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Source: t-online
