Q&A: Everything you need to know about US elections
(Agencies)
Updated: 2004-07-06 10:51

US voters will go to the polls on November 2 to choose a president, hoping things go more smoothly than they did last time. Here comes the explaination of how the process works.

Who is running?

Short of unforeseen disaster, George Bush will certainly be the Republican candidate, with Dick Cheney once again the vice-presidential nominee.

John Kerry, senator for Massachusetts and a Vietnam veteran, will stand for the Democrats. He has yet to pick a vice-presidential candidate, but front-runners include Richard Gephardt, representative for Missouri and former House minority leader; retired general and recently-declared Democrat Wesley Clark; Kansas governor Kathleen Sebelius; Iowa governor Tom Vilsack, and North Carolina senator John Edwards. Republican senator John McCain has also been mentioned, but that seems an unlikely prospect.

And apart from the Democrats and Republicans?

The Green party, with Ralph Nader as its candidate, came a very distant third in the 2000 race. Having ditched Mr Nader in favour of Texas lawyer David Cobb, the Greens will probably only gain if the Democrats look hopelessly weak and lean too far to the right.

Even then, anything more than a dismal showing would be a lot to hope for. US presidential elections are essentially a two-party race, with no other party getting much of a look-in on the national scene.

Because a given candidate may meet election criteria only in certain states, it is perfectly possible to have one set of candidates in, for example, Idaho, and a different set in Texas. Mr Nader's supporters are in a race against time to have him included on ballots as an independent candidate in as many states as possible.

Any other interesting options?

Well, there's the Prohibition party, championing states' rights, teetotallers and "almighty God as the source of all just government".

Or what about the Christian Falangist Party of America, which is "dedicated to fighting the forces of darkness which seeks to destroy our western Christian civilisation"? These forces, according to the CFPA website, are mainly communists and "radical" Muslims. And gays. Oh, and UN officials.

Then there's the America First party ("fighting for faith, freedom and the constitution")? There's something for everyone if you dig deep enough.

Can anyone run for president?

All candidates must be "natural-born" citizens (meaning they were born within the US, Guam, Puerto Rico or the US Virgin Islands, or to American parents abroad), resident within the US for at least 14 years, and at least 35 years old.

Is the vice-president elected separately?

No. The president and vice-president are a package deal - there is no mixing and matching allowed.

What other offices are up for grabs?

The whole of the House of Representatives and one third of the 100-member senate are elected every two years, so all those seats will be contested. In addition, 11 states will hold elections for governor.

How are the final Democratic and Republican candidates chosen?

Between January and September, states hold either primary elections or caucuses to determine which candidate goes forward for election in November. Most states hold direct first-round elections, or primaries.

In most cases, voters can select primary candidates only from the political party they registered with - so Democrats choose from a list of Democratic candidates, Republicans from a Republican list, and so on.

Unlike membership of a political party in Britain, joining a party in the US is a simple matter of ticking a box on a voter registration form. Every voter is free to change their affiliation as often as they like, or to refuse to disclose it at all. Non-affiliated voters cannot take part in these so-called closed primaries. However, a few states hold open primaries, where voters can choose any candidate, no matter what their party affiliation.

Only a small minority of states hold caucuses, or meetings at which party members choose the state's winning candidates. Caucuses require the party member to be present at the state's meeting - thus investing far more time and money than simply turning up to the nearest polling station - meaning that their popularity has waned.

What happens to the winners of the primaries and caucuses?

Candidates accrue delegates - or people who will represent them at the national party conferences - as they win state primaries and caucuses. The idea is to emerge with the most delegates by the time the national conference comes around in mid or late summer.

The job of the delegates is to choose the official party candidate at the Democratic or Republican national conventions. In practice, delegates simply ratify the person chosen by voters in the primaries and caucuses.

Any candidate who looks unlikely to last the course will drop out well before the national convention, sometimes before some of the biggest states have voted. Most simply cannot afford to keep running after early losses. Drop-outs can continue to influence the process by throwing their support behind one of the remaining candidates.

What happens at the national conventions?

These enormous, expensive, back-slapping meetings are organised by the national committees from the respective parties, and invariably involve a large number of red, white and blue balloons.

As there is no question about the Republican candidate, this year's Republican convention - scheduled to begin in New York City on August 30 - will be a political celebration of Mr Bush's presidency.

Recent polls have shown his popularity dipping in the face of continuing violence in Iraq, the failure to find weapons of mass destruction, and the September 11 commission's rebuttal of the administration's statements about Iraqi ties to al-Qaida.

Over at the Democratic convention in Boston on July 26, the party will be desperately trying to drum up enthusiasm for Mr Kerry. A New York Times/CBS poll in July found that only 29% of respondents had a favourable opinion of him, compared with the 35% who said they did not think much of him.

How much does it cost?

According to the Centre for Responsive Politics, the Bush-Cheney campaign spent $186m (￡118m) on the 2000 election race, while the Gore-Lieberman campaign spent $120m.

This time around, Mr Bush had raised more than his 2000 total by the beginning of 2004, and now has a war chest of $214m. Mr Kerry has raised more than one million dollars every day since March, and his total currently stands at $145m.

"Soft money" donations from corporations, unions and individuals were outlawed by the McCain-Feingold law after the 2002 mid-term election. The cap on individual contributions is now set at $2,000.

Why does the process take so long?

Spreading out the primaries and caucuses, though time-consuming, allows candidates to make personal campaign appearances in what is, after all, a very large country with a devotion to states' rights.

This also explains why a run for the presidency is so expensive - anyone seriously expecting to win will have to rack up a mind-numbing number of frequent flier miles. You could argue - and people have - that, in an age of internet access and 24-hour television, a politician should be able to make his or her point to the nation from the comfort of a network news studio, and cut out all that expensive cross-country baby-kissing.

What went wrong in 2000?

Winning the most votes does not guarantee you the presidency. Al Gore won the popular vote by around 500,000 ballots. But without Florida, neither he nor Mr Bush had the necessary majority of votes in the electoral college.

The shenanigans in Florida - hanging chads, butterfly ballots, de-listed black voters - meant the supreme court finally stepped in to put an end to the matter, awarding the state's electoral votes to Mr Bush.

What is the electoral college?

Established by the constitution, the electoral college meets after the general election and officially elects the president. Its members are chosen by the states, and are meant to ratify the choice of the plurality of a state's voters.

Almost all the states operate a winner-takes-all electoral system, thus giving winners a much larger margin of victory than they would have through the popular vote. The constitution actually allows electors to cast their vote for any candidates they please, theoretically rendering the whole general election meaningless. Cases of "faithless electors" are rare, however, and there is great pressure on them to represent the choice of the people.

Each state is allocated one electoral vote for each member of the House of Representatives, and one for each of its two senators. The District of Columbia is awarded three electors.

Why not get rid of the electoral college?

The electoral college is condescending - the founding fathers did not entirely trust the people to elect their leader directly - but it also ensures a minimum voice for states with small populations.

The electoral college's supporters argue that, without it, the sheer volume of voters in California, New York, Texas and Florida would routinely choose the president, swamping the choices of tiny states such as Rhode Island. Seven states possess 45% of the country's population.

The system does under-represent larger states: California has just over 12% of the US population, but its 55 electoral votes for 2004 represent only 10.22% of the total. In contrast, the least populated state, Wyoming, has only 0.18% of the population, but its three electoral votes (the minimum) represent 0.56% of the total.

Perhaps blaming the electoral college for the 2000 disaster is looking in the wrong direction. Had Florida not single-handedly made the case for international election observers with its shoddy practices, either Al Gore or George Bush could have emerged as the clear winner without the need for a court date.

I've won! When do I take office?

Inauguration always takes place on January 20.

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