America votes · by Wonderlane on flickr.com

It seems like everybody is talking about it. The US presidential election 2008. Whereas most of discussions is wrapped around whether or not you support Team John McCain or Team Barack Obama, most people do not entirely understand the election system that was first established when the Founding Fathers were around and has not changed dramatically ever after.

When you come across with an item of the US elections you often stumble upon – yeah, let’s call it – vocabulary that Europeans are not quite familiar with. Note that the election system is quite different from what we are au courant with in Europe.

Read this guide for basic information on the US Presidential Election.

A major characteristic of US elections for president is that it is an indirect election process. Indirect elections basically intend to have a third entity between the people voting and the final result of what candidate made the race. By voting indirectly people rather choose a delegation who will make the finial decision in lieu for the broad masses based on the people’s will. Usually this sort of election mode is used when choosing a president in countries with weak presidencies like Germany and Italy.

In the president’s power: A limousine, an aircraf, an intelligent service, the White House, what else?

By US law the president is in much more power than, for instance, the Austrian president who takes a rather representative and passive role in Austrian politics. The President of the United States is the head of state and government (the head of the executive force) and enjoys several benefits (White House as a home and working place, airplane Air Force One,limousine Cadillac One, protection of the Secret Service up to 10 years after being out of office etc). The president of the United States is considered the highest official measured by recognition and influence.

Eligiblevoters (18+) in America are invited to go and give their vote on the Tuesday following the first Monday in November. In 2008 it will be November 4.

The next paragraph should lay out the main difference from “usual” election modes that we are used to in Europe.

Electoral Vote vs Popular Vote

The Winner Takes It All

Once people cast their vote, all the votes within their states are counted and whoever wins the majority is entitled to take all the electoral votes. The allocated number of electoral votes is determined on the basis of the states population. If the candidate manages to win the state, he/she gets ALL the electoral votes. The most populated state California has 55 electoral votes at stake whereas Wyoming, one of the less populated states has only three. Also Washington D.C., the union’s capital city, has a say in the election weighed as strong as the smallest state (3electoralvotes like Wyoming).

There is a total of 538 electoral votes at stake in the election for the US president. These 538 votes make up the Electoral College.

Electoral votes assigned to each state for the 2008 election (Wikipedia.org)

California’s 55 electoral votes likely to turn all democratic

Example:

California is very likely to turn out to support the democratic candidate in an US election. Let’s assume…

Popular Vote Results: Barack Obama 53.8% – John McCain 38.7% – Others 7.5%.

Electoral Vote Results: Barack Obama 55 – John McCain 0 – Others 0.

The popular vote is what people actually have voted for, whereas the electoral vote is the number of electors who will vote for the president in the Electoral College meeting within their state. This meeting takes placeon the first Monday after the second Wednesday in December. In 2008, it is going to be December 15.

The result are then sent to Congress. On January 6, the electoral votes are collected to check if a candidate gets more than 270 votes. Only then, the result is officially stated. If no majority can be found for either candidate, the election for president will be left up to Congress.

What It Takes To Make The Race

High on the list of must-haves in order to gain the US presidency is an inexhaustible funds. Enormously huge funds will help finance the expensive campaign trail a candidate and the self-chosen vice president have to walk down for more than a year or two. This includes prime-time TV commercials, branded give-away products and other means to raise awareness and convince people that no one else is more fit than the candidate himself/herself. I’m your man!

Since you have a lot of spendings to cover, a candidate relies on donations of the broad masses,lobbyists and the party’s presidential campaign funds. Who is going to pay the bill for that prime-time commercial?

Being omnipresent on media (the internet has gainedimportance) is key and might be as important as how you perform in the presidential debates broadcasted all over the country. These debates can make or break the deal for you.

Charisma can also be very important while racing for the presidency. American people tend to make their decision not only on the basis of their political opinion but also on basis of trust. They wouldn’t want to support a grumpy old man, would they?

Criticism

Critics of the electoral voting mode claim that this sort of system is highly undemocratic. States that tend to be rather Democratic or Republicanwill only represent the political party that wins the majority. That neglects the votes of the opponents including the other big party and several independent candidates who try to run for president. So it is technically possible for a candidate to win the majority of electoral votes without gaining the majority of popular votes. This happened in the 2004 election of Bush versus Kerry. Highly undemocratic, isn’t it? See this abstract example.

Swing states suck in all the attention and the money

As a result of this, there is a number of states that doesn’t have an overwhelmingly strong support for either candidate of the Democratic or Republican party. Ergo, both parties will put a lot of effort to win over votes in these so called swing states or battleground states. In these states the chance of gaining electoral votes is the best. Since swing states decide who will come out as a winner in an election, the undecided states get the most attention from the running candidates.

At left, each waving hand represents a visit from a presidential or vice-presidential candidate during the final five weeks of the election. (Candidates' visits to their own home states are not counted.)At right, each dollar sign represents one million dollars spent on TV advertising by the campaigns during the same time period. (Wikipedia.org)

If one hasn’t got the party’s (full) support, one cannot seriously run for president since it is nearly impossible to get enough attention, money and media coverage. Thus, only the two main parties (Democratic and Republican party) nominate their candidates (plus the vize-presidential candidate – in short VP). There is no room for a 3rd, not to mention a 4th party. A very static system.

So after all these aspects, you ought to ask yourself why not consider the popular vote more? You have to know that this electoral election system has been around since the very beginning. In these days the electors have been a whole lot more popular than they are in fact today. Back in the days the president has been a man they hardly know and because of different speed of transportation (a nice way to put it) never got to travel around and talk to the people. So the electors spread around in all states and run campaigns instead of the president. Also gathering all the votes was more complicated and facilitated by electoral votes. But nowadays it is not so much of a problem anymore. However, members of the Senate haven’t yet seriously attempted to challenge this outdated system.

Please help me make my approach of explaining the presidential election accessible and easy to understand. Any questions? Suggestions?

Vote!

My final shout-outto all the people out there enjoying the right of democracy. Go vote!