Fight for the Whitehouse

    Fight for the

    Whitehouse

                                            Nidhu Bhusan Das

 

Hillary Clinton

Donald Trump

        



The race for US Presidency is on. The popular vote is on 8 November 2016.U.S. citizens vote in the presidential vote every four years on Tuesday after the first Monday in November. The election is held in even-numbered years like this year. On the day the voters will elect the electors, the members of the Electoral College, who ultimately elect the President and his/her running mate, the Vice-President on the first Monday after the second Wednesday in December, this time on December 19.The electoral votes are counted in the joint session of Congress, the federal legislature in January. This time they will be counted on 6 January 2017.That day will let the world know who succeeds the incumbent Barak Obama who retires after serving two terms of eight years.

     Nomination:  Now who join the race and how?  The US has two dominant parties –the Republicans and the Democrats. There are Third Parties as well like the Green Party and the Constitution Party. Third parties and independent candidates are minor players in the US, unlike in India.

The two dominant parties nominate their candidates in primaries or caucuses. In a Primary, party members vote for the best candidate who will represent them in the General Election. In a Caucus party members select the best candidate through a series of discussions and votes. 

    Eligibility: The Presidential candidate must be a natural born citizen, at least 35 years old and U.S. resident for 14 years.

    General Election: People in every state across the country vote for one President and Vice President. When they cast their vote, they are actually voting for a group of people know as Electors.  

   Electoral College: The Electoral College comprises the electors who serve as intermediaries for the country’s voters. In the system each state and the District of Columbia gets a certain number of electors based on its representation in the Congress. The District of Columbia is not a state and does not have any representation in the Congress. But they have 3 electors like the state of Wyoming which has the lowest population. Each state has two senators (the members of the Senate, the Upper House of the Congress like the Rajya Sabha of the Indian Parliament) and a different number of members of the House of Representatives, the lower house of the federal legislature like the Indian Loksabha.U.S. states are entitled to a number electors equal to the number of their members of Congress. The number of Representatives changes every 10 years, based on the population of the state.

This time the strength of the Electoral College is of 538. A simple majority of 270 i.e. 51% votes will decide who will occupy the Whitehouse for the next four years.

Usually, the electors vote according to the results of the November popular vote. However, the federal law or the Constitution does not mandate them to do so.

In the history of the United States, the winner of the popular vote didn’t win the electoral vote four times in 1824, 1876, 1888 and 2000. In 2000 Al Gore won the highest popular votes but the Electoral College selected George W. Bush for president.

    Front Runners : This time two front runners are  the former First Lady and Secretary of state for the first term Obama administration  Hillary Clinton of the Democratic Party and  Donald Trump of the Republican Party.