US elections 2024: what you should know in 9 questions and solutions | EUROtoday

The elections shall be held on November 5, 2024: residents will vote for the subsequent president. The winner may have a four-year time period, beginning in January 2025.

Voters must select not solely the subsequent president, but additionally new members of Congress. Voting will happen for all 435 seats of the House of Representatives, whereas as regards the Senate, solely 33 of the 100 seats are up for grabs (every state has two senators who’re elected for a six-year time period and each two years a 3rd of the Senate is re-elected). Currently, Democrats management the Senate and Republicans management the House.

Primaries and caucuses are the processes by which voters select the delegates who will symbolize them at upcoming conventions.

Primaries: Party members vote for the most effective candidate to symbolize them within the basic election. Most states maintain primaries six to 9 months earlier than the overall election, which takes place in November. Primary voters select their favourite candidate anonymously.

Caucus: In caucuses, voters select the most effective candidate by way of a sequence of conferences and votes. Caucuses change main elections. States presently utilizing this technique are Nevada, Wyoming, North Dakota, Iowa and Missouri.

The variety of states holding caucuses has steadily declined, partly with encouragement from the Democratic National Committee to make use of primaries, that are simpler to manage. Kansas, Maine and Hawaii are among the many newest states to go for a main system.

Delegates are individuals approved to symbolize voters at a political celebration conference. They could be elected officers, celebration leaders and even activists (which implies delegates don't essentially need to be politicians).

Swing states, also called “battleground states”, are states that might help each Democratic and Republican candidates. Because they’ll doubtlessly be received by both candidate, political events usually make investments extra money and time campaigning in these states.

The swing states in 2024 are Michigan, Georgia, Arizona, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Nevada and North Carolina.

During nationwide conventions, delegates chosen throughout primaries and caucuses “to represent the people” endorse their most popular candidates. Simply put, state delegates go to the nationwide conference to substantiate their alternative of candidates. The closing presidential candidate of every celebration is formally introduced on the finish of the conventions. It is exactly on this event that the presidential candidate additionally chooses who he desires at his aspect, the so-called “running mate”, i.e. the candidate for vp.

The Electoral College is a physique of electors established by the United States Constitution, charged with formally electing the president and vp. Indeed, within the United States, the president and vp are elected by the Electoral College reasonably than by a direct well-liked vote.

The Electoral College consists of 538 electors chosen from every state, who’re assigned quite a lot of electors equal to the overall variety of its Senators and Representatives within the United States Congress. For instance, California, being probably the most populous state, has 55 electors, whereas smaller states like Wyoming have 3 electors (2 Senators + 1 Representative). The course of of choosing electors varies from state to state, however they’re usually chosen by political events and are sometimes loyal to the celebration.

On Election Day (November 5), when voters vote for president and vp, they’re really voting for a slate of electors chosen from their respective candidates' political celebration. In quick, they’re telling their state which candidate they wish to vote for on the electors assembly. In all states besides Maine and Nebraska, the candidate who wins the favored vote receives all of the electoral votes. This system is also known as “winner-takes-all”.

Electors collect of their respective states on December 17 after the overall election to vote for president and vp. These votes are then despatched to Congress. On January 6, votes are counted throughout a joint session of Congress. The candidate who receives an absolute majority of electoral votes (270 out of 538) turns into the president-elect. If no candidate receives a majority, the House of Representatives chooses the president from the highest three candidates, and every state delegation has one vote.

Critics of the Electoral College level out that it could result in conditions through which a candidate wins the favored vote nationwide however loses the electoral vote, as occurred within the 1876, 1888, 2000 and 2016 elections.

Both candidates compete for Electoral College votes. Each state has a sure variety of Electoral College votes (primarily based partly on inhabitants) and there are a complete of 538 votes up for grabs, so the winner is the candidate who will get 270 or extra. This signifies that voters determine on the state degree reasonably than the nationwide degree, which is why it’s attainable for a candidate to win probably the most votes nationally — as Hillary Clinton did in 2016 — however nonetheless be defeated by the Electoral College. All however two states use the “winner-takes-all” rule (Maine and Nebraska), whereby the candidate who receives probably the most votes wins all the state's electoral faculty votes.

In abstract, whereas delegates play a task in nominating a celebration's presidential candidate on the nationwide conference, the Electoral College is chargeable for formally electing the president and vp of the United States primarily based on the end result of the overall election.