How the US presidential election system works

Today, November 5, presidential elections are officially held in the United States of America. However, we will not know the winner before January, because the election system in the United States is significantly different from the Ukrainian one.

How the elections are held in the USA — read in the Novyny.LIVE material.

The electoral system of the United States

In Ukraine, on election day, people go to the polls, vote for their candidate from the list, and the one who gets the most votes becomes president.

In the United States, the system is indirect — voters do not vote directly for a candidate, but for so-called electors or electoral voters in each state, who then cast their votes for one of the two presidential candidates.

Who are the electors?

The Electoral College is a group of people elected from each state who formally select the president of the United States. The number of electors in each state is different, depending on the size of its population. States with large populations like California or Texas have more electors than smaller states like Wyoming or Vermont.

In total, there are 538 members in the Electoral College. To become president, a candidate must receive the support of a majority of electors — at least 270 votes.

The electors are mostly party members, political activists, representatives of campaign headquarters, or well-known people in the state. Each party nominates its own electors, votes for them, and publishes the lists. These people are chosen very carefully to ensure that they are loyal to their faction's candidate and do not change their minds at the crucial moment.

After the election, the voters are attached to the candidates. That is, when people vote in elections, they, in fact, do not vote directly for a candidate, but for voters.

Voting of voters

In December, electors gather and vote directly for presidential candidates. But even here, things are not so simple. Each state has its own electoral rules, but the most commonly used system is winner-take-all.

This means that the candidate who receives the most votes in a state receives all the votes from that state. For example, if one candidate wins the majority of votes in California, where there are 55 electors, he or she receives all 55 electoral votes.

The exceptions to this rule are Maine and Nebraska, where electoral votes can be distributed among candidates depending on the support in the electoral districts.

In most cases, electors vote the way the people in their state voted, but in some cases, an elector may vote differently. Such electors are called "faithless electors". However, this phenomenon is quite rare.

Swing states

Usually, the way a state will vote is not a surprise. There are so-called "red" and "blue" states. That is, those who have already decided for the representative of which party they will cast the majority of votes — Republican or Democratic. And most states can be attributed to one or another category.

However, there is such a concept as "swing states" — oscillating states. They have not yet decided on their candidate, and the fiercest fight is usually going on for them.

There are seven swing states this year: Pennsylvania, Georgia, North Carolina, Michigan, Arizona, Wisconsin and Nevada.

Winner

After the votes are counted, in January, the US Congress convenes to officially approve the results of the Electoral College vote and announce the winner of the presidential election.

If none of the candidates receives the required 270 votes, the decision to elect the president is made by the House of Representatives of Congress. In this case, each state has only one vote, regardless of its population.

This seemingly complicated system of the Electoral College was created to ensure a balance between large and small states. Because of this system, smaller states also have influence, and candidates must consider all regions of the country, not just the most populous states.