US Presidential Elections - United States

When does the election for US President take place?
On the Tuesday following the first Monday of the month of November in years divisible by four, does the US Election for the President and Vice President take place.

What is the eligibility criteria to contest for US President?

The candidate must meet three criteria to be eligible to contest for US President. The three criteria are:-

must be a natural-born US citizen,
must be 35 years of age, and
must have been a resident of the US for at least 14 years.

How is the US President elected?

The President of the United States is elected by the Electoral College and not directly by the population. He is elected by electors from each state and the District of Columbia, who form a 538 member electoral college. The candidate for president with the most electoral votes, provided that it is an absolute majority (more than 50% of the total), is declared president.
Each state is assigned electoral votes based on the number of senators and representatives that state has in Congress. The electoral vote totals determine the winner, not the statistical plurality or majority a candidate may have in the nation-wide vote totals. Electoral votes are awarded on the basis of the popular vote in each State.
Note that 48 out of the 50 States award electoral votes on a winner-takes-all basis (as does District of Columbia).

What is the difference between the winner-takes-all rule and proportional voting, and which States follow which rule?

There are 48 States that have a winner-takes-all rule for the Electoral College. In these States, whichever candidate receives a majority of the vote, or a plurality of the popular vote (less than 50 percent but more than any other candidate) takes all of the State's electoral votes.
Only two States, Nebraska and Maine, do not follow the winner-takes-all rule. In these states, two electors' votes are made based on the candidate who received the most votes statewide. The remaining electoral votes go by congressional districts, awarding the vote to the candidate who received the most votes in each district.

What is the statewise composition of the electoral college?

Each state is assigned electoral votes based on the number of senators and representatives that state has in Congress. Also the District of Columbia is assigned 3 electoral votes. The total electoral votes of the electoral college is 538.

How does the Electoral College work?

The names of the duly nominated candidates are officially submitted to each State's chief election official so that they might appear on the general election ballot.

On the Tuesday following the first Monday of November in years divisible by four, the people in each State cast their ballots for the party slate of Electors representing their choice for president and vice president (although as a matter of practice, general election ballots normally say "Electors for" each set of candidates rather than list the individual Electors on each slate).

Whichever party slate wins the most popular votes in the State becomes that State's Electors-so that, in effect, whichever presidential ticket gets the most popular votes in a State wins all the Electors of that State. [The two exceptions to this are Maine and Nebraska where two Electors are chosen by statewide popular vote and the remainder by the popular vote within each Congressional district].

On the Monday following the second Wednesday of December (as established in federal law) each State's Electors meet in their respective State capitals and cast their electoral votes-one for president and one for vice president.

In order to prevent Electors from voting only for "favorite sons" of their home State, at least one of their votes must be for a person from outside their State (though this is seldom a problem since the parties have consistently nominated presidential and vice presidential candidates from different States).

The electoral votes are then sealed and transmitted from each State to the President of the Senate who, on the following January 6, opens and reads them before both houses of the Congress.

The candidate for president with the most electoral votes, provided that it is an absolute majority (one over half of the total), is declared president. Similarly, the vice presidential candidate with the absolute majority of electoral votes is declared vice president.

In the event no one obtains an absolute majority / in the event of an electoral college tie

In the event no one obtains an absolute majority of electoral votes for president, the U.S. House of Representatives (as the chamber closest to the people) selects the president from among the top three contenders with each State casting only one vote and an absolute majority of the States being required to elect. Similarly, if no one obtains an absolute majority for vice president, then the U.S. Senate makes the selection from among the top two contenders for that office.

When is the elected President sworn in office?

At noon on January 20, the duly elected president and vice president are sworn into office.

US President Election