HOW THE ELECTORAL

PROCESS WORKS

Presidential elections are held once every four years as

dictated by our Constitution. The way a president is
elected is through an electoral process.

"The electoral process begins with the primary

elections and caucuses and moves to nominating
conventions, during which political parties each
select a nominee to unite behind. The nominee also
announces a Vice Presidential running mate at this
time. The candidates then campaign across the
country to explain their views and plans to voters and
participate in debates with candidates from other
parties." (https://www.usa.gov/election)

THE ELECTORAL PROCESS

The electoral process refers to the method by which a
presidential candidate is elected to become President of
the United States of America. The election process for
electing a governor, mayor, senator, representative, etc.
is different from voting for a president because when a
citizen votes for the former, the citizen is voting directly
for that candidate running for a specific office. However,
when voting for a president, a citizen is voting instead for
an elector who has pledged to represent that candidate.
The electors are a group of people who officially elect
the President and Vice President of the United States of
America. Before this happens, the 50 states, D.C., and
the territories of the US hold primary elections or
caucuses.

Prepared by the students from In

un
URBAN INFRASTRUCTURE STUDIES

University of Chartwell
 PRIMARY ELECTION
The presidential primary election is a process to determine
which presidential candidate will be chosen to be the
nominee and run in the national general election. It is
similar to a general election process as voters cast secret
ballots for the candidates of their choosing. The results
help determine how delegates will likely vote at nomination
conventions, also known as National Conventions. There
are many different rules for different states about how the
primary elections operate.

CLOSED PRIMARY ELECTION

Most states will only let you vote in the primary election if
you are an official member of the party. That means you
have to be registered as a democrat, republican, etc. to
vote in each respective party's primary election. If you are
not registered with a certain party and are independent, you
are not allowed to vote in the primary election. This is called
a closed primary because the voting is closed to non-party
members. Thus, independent voters in states with closed
primary elections are unable to vote in the primary
elections, or a democrat cannot vote in a republican
primary or vice versa.

SEMI-CLOSED PRIMARY ELECTION

Some states, however, have semi-closed primary, where

independents can pick one party to vote in. Parties allow
this because often presidential elections are often
determined by independents, so knowing which candidates
independents likes is useful.
OPEN PRIMARY ELECTION

Finally, a few states have open primary, where any

citizen no matter which party they are registered with can
pick any primary to vote in.

WHEN PRIMARY ELECTIONS OCCUR

The primaries in all the different states do not all occur at

once, but instead are spread out throughout the year. This
has led to fights between states to see which states get to
vote first. New Hampshire put it into law that they would
hold their primary elections one week ahead of all other
states. Some states form an alliance to boost their
influence on the election so that they vote together on a
day called Super Tuesday.

DELEGATES

When voters vote in the primary elections, they are not

voting directly for their candidate. Instead they are voting
for a middleman, called delegates, to vote for them. In
some states the delegates pledge to vote as requested
by the voters. In some other states delegate are allowed
to choose who they want irregardless of who the voters
voted for. The delegates are local party VIPs, such as
state representatives or officials like the mayor. The
more citizens who live in the state, the more delegates
that state gets. Later in the year after all the states have
had their primary elections, the delegates travel to their
party's National Convention. It is here that the official
vote by the delegates to select the partys nominee for
president happens.
SUPERDELEGATES

Delegates at the National Convention are not the only

ones who get to vote. Superdelegates also get to vote.
Superdelegates are the top members of the political
parties. They include former presidents and congressmen.
They go to the National Convention not to represent the
people, but to represent the political party establishment
and can vote for whomever they want. Depending on the
political party, the superdelegates may make up to 20% of
the voters who are at the National Convention. Generally,
by the time the National Convention happens all of the
candidates except one have dropped out of the race. But,
if the fight between candidates is still on-going, then the
delegates and the superdelegates are the ones who make
the final decision as to who the nominee will be.

CAUCUSES

A caucus, unlike a primary election which is done in

secret, is a public vote. People gather in groups then
literally take sides in a room with everyone else who likes
the same candidate. The group debates each other and if
people change their minds, they physically switch sides.
At the end of the debate the party representatives count
the number of people in each group. Additionally, votes in
caucuses can be made by raising hands. Some states
such as Alaska, Colorado, Hawaii, Iowa and Maine vote
exclusively by caucuses to select delegates to attend the
National Convention. Other states may have a mixture of
both primary elections and caucuses. The majority of
states vote by primary elections in the nomination
process.
IN SUMMARY...
Presidential elections are held once every four years.
Primary elections or caucuses are held to select delegates
to attend National Conventions. At the National Convention
the delegates meet up with the superdelegates, who
represent the best interests of their party, and together they
make the final decision on who will be the nominee for
president.

GENERAL ELECTION

In the General Election, Americans are not directly voting

for a president. Instead, what they are voting for are
electoral votes. This is because of something called the
Electoral College. The Electoral College is the collection of
538 electoral votes that determine who the next president
will be. This number is derived from the 100 Senators and
438 Representatives in Congress.

These 538 votes are divided among the states. Each state
starts of with 3 electoral votes. The remaining electoral
votes are given out roughly in proportion to the population
of the state. The more people living in the state, the more
electoral votes it gets. When voting in the General Election,
voters are actually telling the state how it would like the
state to use its electoral votes to officially vote for the next
president. 48 of the 50 states give all their electoral college
votes to the candidate who wins the majority in their state.
A president can be elected by winning enough majorities in
enough states to get more than half of the electoral college
votes, which is 270 electoral votes.

The real election takes place in early December when the

538 electors cast the real votes to determine who the next
President of the United States will be.
 ISSUES WITH THE
ELECTORAL COLLEGE

As Alexander Hamilton writes in The Federalist Papers,

the Constitution is designed to ensure that the office of
President will never fall to the lot of any man who is not in
an eminent degree endowed with the requisite
qualifications. The point of the Electoral College is to
preserve the sense of the people, while at the same time
ensuring that a president is chosen by men most capable
of analyzing the qualities adapted to the station, and acting
under circumstances favorable to deliberation, and to a
judicious combination of all the reasons and inducements
which were proper to govern their choice.
http://www.factcheck.org/2008/02/the-reason-for-the-
electoral-college/

The founding fathers established the Electoral College

process as part of the Constitution. The reason they
established it was because they believed the electors would
be more knowledgeable and could make wiser decisions
when choosing the president.

When the electoral college was designed in the 1700's,

information moved very slowly because the country was so
big. By having electors meet in Washington where they
could have all the up to date information at the same time,
these electors could make better decisions for the people
who might not know the latest news because they lived so
far away. However, in our information age where information
moves so quickly, this aspect of the electoral college may
be out of date.

The reasons for which the Founding Fathers created the

Electoral College are no longer relevant. Modern
technology allows voters to get necessary information to
make informed decisions in a way that could not have
been foreseen by the Founding Fathers.
http://www.procon.org/headline.php?headlineID=005330
Also at issue is does your vote really count? As long as you
are an American citizen over the age of 18 you are allowed
to vote, unless you are in prison. People who live in U.S.
territories such as Guam, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin
Islands are U.S. citizens, but can only vote in the primary
elections, not the general election. For American citizens
who live in foreign countries, they can vote in the last state
they resided in before moving. Even if you are an astronaut
in outer space, you can vote. But if you are an American
citizen who moves to one of the U.S. territories, then you
are no longer able to vote in the general election.

There are 538 electoral votes for over 300 million people
living in the United States. The way that the number of
electoral votes are assigned to each state gives smaller
states more power next to larger states. Therefore, a perso
voting from a smaller state such as Rhode Island will have
more voting power then a person voting from a larger state
like Texas. So the votes do not count equally. Also, the
presidential candidate only needs to get a slight majority to
have the "winner-take-all" electoral votes. This makes the
candidates likely to only focus on campaigning in states tha
have a close race and not focus so much on states where
there are large gaps.

Because the electoral college process is written in the U.S.

constitution, a constitutional amendment would have to be
passed to make any changes to it. As a citizen, you could
voice your opinion to your congressional senator or
representative to make changes if you agree that not all
votes count equally or believe the electoral process needs
to be updated. Understanding how the electoral process
works is a useful step to help citizens make a much more
educated decision about the process.