Former President Donald Trump addresses his supporters whereas taking part in a video about Vice President Kamala Harris throughout a marketing campaign rally on the PPL middle in Allentown, on October 29.
| Picture Credit score: AP

The story to date: U.S. residents will cast their ballots on November 5, to decide on largely between Republican candidate and former President Donald Trump and Vice-President and Democrat Kamala Harris as their forty seventh President within the sixtieth quadrennial elections. The U.S. Structure mandates that as an alternative of securing the favored vote, the winner is the candidate who clinches the utmost variety of electoral school votes. Other than three cases within the 1800s, leads to the current previous equivalent to George Bush Jr.’s victory over Al Gore in 2000 and Mr. Trump’s victory over Hilary Clinton (2016) took place on this method.

What’s the electoral school?

The electoral school is an middleman physique or course of that chooses the U.S. President. On this system, voters of every State solid their ballots to decide on members (or electors) of the electoral school who then vote to pick the President.

The variety of electors accorded to every State is in proportion to its inhabitants and mirrors its variety of members in Congress — each the Home of Representatives and the Senate. The system, whose origins might be traced again to the times of slavery, was put in place to make sure States acquired equal illustration within the election course of.

What’s the course of?

Within the months main as much as the election, totally different events nominate their slate of would-be electors in every State. The slate of the get together that wins the favored vote in a State goes on to grow to be electors from that State within the electoral school.

Conventionally, these electors meet in December and go by the desire of their residents to vote for the candidate who gained the favored vote of their State. If an elector votes in opposition to the residents’ selection, they’re known as faithless electors, and a few States have provisions to prosecute them. Within the presidential elections of 2016, there have been seven ‘faithless’ electors although their votes made no distinction to the outcome. California, with 54 electoral votes, has the utmost variety of seats within the electoral school, adopted by Texas with 40 and Florida with 30 whereas States equivalent to North Dakota, South Dakota, Delaware, and Vermont have the minimal variety of 3. Aside from two States (Maine and Nebraska), the winner of the favored vote will get all electoral votes of that State (and the District of Columbia); in different phrases, “Winner takes all”. There are 538 electoral votes within the school and a candidate should safe at the least 270 votes to grow to be President.

What occurs if there’s a tie?

Based on the U.S. authorities’s web site, the scenario has transpired solely twice — in 1800 and 1824. On each events, the Home of Representatives spawned an answer by electing Thomas Jefferson and John Quincy Adams respectively as President.

Given the present composition of States and their voters, such a scenario is very unlikely. Nevertheless, if a scenario had been to come up, Article 2 of the U.S. Structure and the twelfth Modification mandate that the election strikes to the Home of Representatives the place the newly elected 435 members are sworn in and vote on who turns into President.

However the variety of representatives accorded to States within the Home, every State will get one vote. The profitable get together within the State will get to ballot that vote and the candidate that garners 26 votes is said President.

The Congress is scheduled to fulfill in early January to rely the votes, and the brand new President is about to take cost on January 20, 2025, for a time period of 4 years. If the Home is unable to provide you with a outcome by then, the Vice-President turns into Appearing President, and the Home continues to vote till it arrives at a outcome. In the meantime, the election for the Vice-President occurs within the Senate. Within the 100-member robust Senate, every member will get one vote and the bulk mark of 51 is desired for a candidate to say victory. By advantage of being separate elections, this will result in a scenario the place the President and Vice-President are from totally different political events.