What do you know about U.S Presidential Election?

U.S. Constitution Requirements for a Presidential Candidate: 

The President must: 

1. Be a natural-born citizen of the United States 
2. Be at least 35 years old 
3. Have been a resident of the United States for 14 years 

PROCESS OF US PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIONS: 

Step 1: Primaries and Caucuses: -

An election for President of the United States occurs every four years. Before the election, most candidates for President go through a series of state primaries and caucuses. These are done to elect the Presidential Candidate for both the parties. The Democrats and The Republicans hold their own primaries and caucuses to elect the Presidential candidate among number of hopefuls. 

Primaries are a preliminary election to appoint delegates to a party conference. These delegates further select the candidates for the presidential election. 

The primaries and caucuses are run differently but both of them are essentially conducted to elect state delegates who represent their states at national party conventions. The candidate who is able to accumulate a majority of his/her party’s delegates at the national party convention wins the party’s nomination

Primary elections are state level elections conducted by the state and local governments. In this, voting occurs through a secret ballot and voters choose candidates affiliated with their political party for the upcoming general elections. Winning candidates will send the delegates to the national party convention. The delegates selected through primaries and caucuses then officially nominate their national candidate. In total, the caucuses are held in 10 US states— Iowa, Alaska, Colorado, Hawaii, Kansas, Maine, Minnesota, Nevada, North Dakota and Wyoming. The remaining 40 states hold primaries.

Caucuses are meetings where members of political parties divide themselves into groups according to the candidate they support, with undecided voters forming into a group of their own. Each group then gives speeches supporting a candidate and tries to persuade others to join their group. At the end of the caucus, party organizers count the voters in each candidate's group and calculate how many delegates each candidate has won. The Iowa caucus marks the start of the US presidential elections.

Step 2: National Convention: -

After the primaries and caucuses, most political parties hold a national convention to select their presidential and vice presidential nominees. 

Step 3: General Election: -

The presidential candidates participate in debates and general election campaigns throughout the country to explain their views and plans to the general population and win the support of potential voters. When people cast their vote for president, they are actually voting for a group of people known as electors. They are part of the Electoral College, used to elect the U.S. President and Vice President. 

Step 4: Electoral College:-

Each state is allotted a certain number of electors depending upon its total number of representatives in Congress. The electors then cast their votes to decide the next President of the US. Each elector has one electoral vote. If a candidate obtains more than half (270) out of the total 538 electoral votes, he stands elected to the office of the President. In the event no candidate has the majority then the House of Representatives chooses the President and the Senate chooses the Vice President. Both the president-elect and vice president-elect take the oath of office in January.

 Each state’s number of electors is equal to the number of its U.S. Senators plus the number of its U.S. Representatives. Washington D.C (national capital), is given a number of electors equal to the number held by the smallest state. 

 When a candidate receives the majority of votes, he or she receives all of the state’s electoral votes. (It is possible for a candidate to receive the majority of the popular vote but not of the electoral vote and lose a presidential election.)