Essay on the Complex and Expensive Presidential Nomination Process in the US

In the United States, both the president and the vice president are not elected by the people directly. Instead, they are elected by the electors through the electrical college. The presidential selection process begins with the presidential nomination process, which remains to be one of the most complex, expensive, and lengthy process (ClearIAS, 2019). After every four years, the presidential candidates engage in a series of state contest where they compete to gain a nomination from their party. In each of the contests in the primary or a caucus, the selected delegates represent their states in the national party conventions (Polga-Hecimovich, 2018). In this case, the presidential candidate that gains the majority votes from his or her party's delegates then wins the party nomination (U.S. Embassy & Consulate in Thailand, 2019).

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The presidential election process is consolidated on various key steps. In the first step, upon meeting the qualification as per the US Constitution, the candidate announces their intention to run for the presidency. In this case, as per the US Constitution, the presidential candidate is required to be a citizen naturally born in the US, a resident for 114 days, and should be at least 35 years of age (Voting Elections, 2019).

The second step is to hold primaries and caucuses by the parties in the various states (Bill of Rights Institute, 2019). There may be many people willing to run for the presidential position. These people have different ideas on how to run the US government effectively. For this reason, the candidates with similar ideas align themselves in the same political, but they ought to win a vote from the party members. The candidates thus conduct campaigns to win the primary vote (Council on Foreign Relations, 2016). It is at this point that the candidates also participate in presidential debates against other candidates under the same party. In a primary, the party members hold a state-level election where thy vote for the best candidate to participate in the general election (Yglesias, 2019). For example, both the republicans and the democrats select their candidates. On the other hand, a caucus involves the situation where the registered members of a given party hold a meeting to vote for the preferred candidates. It acts as a substitute for the primary elections where the party members elect delegates that will participate in the national party conventions (Library of Congress, 2019).

In the third step, the political parties hold national conventions where the parties announce their presidential nomination candidate to the public (American Government, 2019). During the convention, the delegates elected during the caucus then cast their vote for the nominated candidate, and the candidate that gets highest votes gets the party's nomination. After each party selects their presidential nominee, the candidate then chooses their preferred running mate who is to be the vice president. This marks the beginning of the general election process.

The fourth step involves presidential campaigns where the candidates nominated in each parties contest against each other. These candidates travel around the country, explaining to the public their ideas. They hold rallies and debates which allows them to air their views as they seek to win the general election. The next step is the general election, commonly representing the popular vote. It usually occurs in November where people in each of the states across the country as well as the District of Columbia cast their votes to elect one president and one vice presidents (Voting Elections, 2019). In the ballot, vote for electors who then form the Electoral College. These electors appointed in each of the states then pledge to support the presidential candidate supported by the voters. However, it is worth noting that winning the popular vote does not guarantee that the candidate will win the presidential election. For instance, in 2016, President Donald Trump from the Republican Party gained 62, 980,160 in the popular losing to Hilary Clinton of the Democratic Party who gained 65,845,063 (Voting Elections, 2019). However, President Trump won the presidential election by getting 304 electoral votes while Hillary got 227 votes.

The next step is the Electoral College vote, which is the determinant of the presidential election winner. It usually takes place in December where the electors in the Electoral College cast their vote to elect the president. According to the US constitution, the candidate that gets the majority votes in the Electoral College wins the election. (Polyas, 2019) While the electors represent each of the states across the country, the total representation in congress determines the number of electors in each of the states. All the 50 states in the US as well as Washington DC, the US capital and a district that does not belong to any of the states have several electors who are dependent with the size of the state. For instance, the state of California is considered as the most populated with approximately 38 million people and therefore has 55 electors. In the general election, each of the electors cast one vote (Voting Elections, 2019). Since there are 538 members in the Electoral College, the presidential candidate is supposed 270 votes which represent more than a half of the total for him or her to win. After the congress counts the votes, the winning candidate is sworn in office in an inauguration that takes place on 20th January (Voting Elections, 2019).

References

American Government. (2019). The Presidential Election Process. Retrieved 24 July 2019, from https://courses.lumenlearning.com/amgovernment/chapter/the-presidential-election-process/

Bill of Rights Institute. (2019). Understanding the Nomination Process. Retrieved 24 July 2019, from https://billofrightsinstitute.org/educate/educator-resources/lessons-plans/current-events/nomination-process/

ClearIAS. (2019). The Election Process of US President: Made Simple. Retrieved 24 July 2019, from https://www.clearias.com/election-process-of-us-president/

Council on Foreign Relations. (2016). The U.S. Presidential Nominating Process. Retrieved 24 July 2019, from https://www.cfr.org/backgrounder/us-presidential-nominating-process

Library of Congress. (2019). Political Primaries: How Are Candidates Nominated? - Elections - Classroom Presentation | Teacher Resources. Retrieved 24 July 2019, from https://www.loc.gov/teachers/classroommaterials/presentationsandactivities/presentations/elections/political-primaries.html

Polga-Hecimovich, J. (2018). Presidential Candidate Selection in Comparative Perspective. Oxford Bibliographies Online Datasets. doi: 10.1093/obo/9780199756223-0257

Polyas. (2019). Presidential Election. Retrieved 24 July 2019, from https://www.polyas.com/election-glossary/presidential-election

U.S. Embassy & Consulate in Thailand. (2019). Summary of the U.S. Presidential Election Process. Retrieved 24 July 2019, from https://th.usembassy.gov/summary-of-the-u-s-presidential-election-process/

Voting Elections. (2019). Presidential Election Process | USAGov. Retrieved 24 July 2019, from https://www.usa.gov/election

Yglesias, M. (2019). The primary process, explained | Guide to the presidential primaries. Retrieved 24 July 2019, from https://www.vox.com/a/presidential-primaries-2016-republican-democrat/presidential-primaries-explained