United States: what is the presidential election process like?

The presidential elections in the United States They occur every 4 years, with an indirect vote. That is to say, that The citizens first vote for the electors, and they choose the president. In this way, whoever obtains the most votes from the representatives of the Electoral College will assume the presidency of the country.

To be an eligible candidate, you must meet a series of requirements: You must be a US citizen by birth, have lived in the country for at least 14 years, and be over 35 years old. From there you can register one year before the elections, in the period from March to May.

Between January and June of the election year, elections are held. primaries and caucuses (election of delegates in several US states), which later They lead to the approval of candidates by party. The debates take place between September and October, which precede the general elections in November. The following month, in December, the election of the members of the Electoral College is held, the results of which are approved in Congress during the first half of January of the following year. Finally, on January 20, the winner takes office.

Regarding the primaries and caucuses, there are three typeswhich depend on the norms of each state and party. These are: privatewhere only party members participate; publicwhere all voters vote; and hybridswhich are semi-public and semi-private.

In this way, the delegates of all the states elect a single candidate, that needs 50% plus 1 vote to be crowned, and usually the dispute occurs between Republican and Democratic representatives.

What is the Electoral College and what function does it serve?

He Electoral College is made up of 538 representatives from various states, who are usually party activists, former military personnel and influential figures. The body is in charge of determining the result of the elections, after the votes of the citizens. Candidates need 270 electoral votes to winOtherwise the House of Representatives elects the president. Furthermore, it is worth noting that in 48 states and Washington, DC, the winner gets all the electoral votes of the samewhile in Maine and Nebraska They assign their electors with a proportional system.

The number of members of the Electoral College from each region is proportional to the size of the population. In any case, this system has many detractors, who explain that it is undemocratic and discriminatory, since it allows a candidate to win the election even if he loses the national popular vote – something that happened on 5 occasions – and makes the value of a candidate’s vote citizen depends on where he lives, giving a few states, the so-called swing states, a disproportionate influence in the election of the president and vice president.

Citizens, when voting for a presidential candidate, They are actually voting for that candidate’s preferred group of voters.. On election day, a projected winner is usually announced on the evening of voting day itself.

US elections: what the latest polls say about Kamala Harris and Donald Trump

The surveys continue to reflect a very similar picture. between the Harrises and Trump: both they remain tied in most polls, although some put the candidate running to replace Joe Biden after its historic abandonment.

The Republican solidified his electoral base after the attack he suffered in July of this year, while Harris increased the numbers of a Democratic Party that could not find its way with the current president running for re-election. The truth is that Biden’s withdrawal rebalanced the electoral path.

In addition, In the usual pivotal states, the former prosecutor failed to rise enough, and it is estimated that this could twist the trend. Taking into account the last two elections in 2016 and 2020 respectively, these states are: Arizona, North Carolina, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.

Either one needs to get 270 electoral votes to win and be proclaimed president of the main global power. Everything indicates that the definition will only be known at the last minuteand that trends can vary even on the same election day.

The campaigns of Donald Trump and Kamala Harris

The current 59-year-old vice president tries to promote “a new generation of leaders” and hopes that “the United States is prepared to receive them.” She hopes that her country wants to break with Trump by electing her, whose father is Jamaican and whose mother is Indian.

Kamala Harris’s program has centrist overtones, combining different promises of improvements for the middle class and defenses of central disputes such as that of right to abortionwith a strong firmness against illegal immigration.

Likewise, he did not precisely detail his program except in the electoral debate, but if knew how to respond to the attacks of the billionaire, with statements that moved him. He reminded him of his last electoral defeat in 2020 and described him as “weak”, among other phrases.

For its part, donald trump He continues with the same positions that led him to become president in 2016, and that he also applied in the elections that he lost against Biden. He shows himself as the anti-system and the only one who can “change the course of his country”, although at the same time he tries to show himself as close to the people by criticizing the Washington elites.

He targets the Democratic candidate fundamentally by questioning inflation and accuses her of wanting to apply the same measures “of Venezuela or the Soviet Union”. The “fight against legal migration that is destroying American cities” and the fight for a country free of “terrorists and rapists, released from prisons and asylums,” are his main campaign slogans.

Furthermore, he has repeatedly used rhetoric that positions him as a survivor of two murder attemptsone in July and another in September 2024.

Political tension grows day by day and the crossfires are felt ahead of next November 5. For this reason, electoral centers have had to be restructured with wrought iron fences and numerous metal detectors.