Q & A: US elections
(chinadaily.com.cn/Agencies)
Updated: 2004-02-24 15:50

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

Who's running?

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

Who are the Democratic candidates?

John Kerry, senator for Massachusetts. John Edwards, senator for North Carolina. Wesley Clark, retired general and former Nato commander. Howard Dean, the former governor of Vermont. Al Sharpton, civil rights activist. Dennis Kucinich, representative from Ohio.

Who has dropped out?

Joseph Lieberman, senator for Connecticut. Lieberman ran alongside Al Gore in the 2000 election. Richard Gephardt, representative for Missouri and former House minority leader. He ran for the party's presidential nomination in 1988, but lost out to Michael Dukakis. Carol Moseley Braun, former senator for Illinois and the first African American woman ever elected to the Senate.

Will Hillary Clinton run for president?

The senator for New York repeatedly stated she would not join the race and, true to her word, she did not.

And apart from the Democrats and Republicans?

The Green party came in a very distant third in the 2000 race. If the Democrats look hopelessly weak and lean too far to the right, the Greens could gain a bit. But US presidential elections are essentially a two-party race, and no other party gets much of a look in on the national scene.

Because a given candidate may meet election criteria only in certain states, it's perfectly possible to have one set of candidates in, say, Idaho, and a different set in Texas.

Can anyone run for president?

All candidates must be "natural-born" citizens (meaning born within the US, Guam, Puerto Rico or the US Virgin Islands, or to American parents abroad), resident within the United States 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, 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 2004, 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 being a member of a political party in Britain, in the US joining a party is a simple matter of ticking a box on a voter registration form, and every voter is free to change affiliation as often as desired, or 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 the party affiliation.

Only a small minority of states hold caucuses, or meetings in which party members choose the state's winning candidates. A caucus requires 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 - so 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 come out with the most delegates by the time the national conference rolls 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 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.

As there is no question about the Republican candidate, this year's Republican convention - scheduled to begin on August 30, 2004 in New York City - will be a political celebration of George Bush's presidency.

Over at the Democratic convention in Boston, the last remaining candidates will gather on July 26, 2004, and will look on as each state calls out the number of delegates it will award to individual candidates. Then, under a heavy shower of red, white and blue balloons, the Democrats will announce their official contender for president.

How much does it cost?

According to the Centre for Responsive Politics, the Bush-Cheney campaign spent $186m (￡118m) on the 2000 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.

"Soft money" donations from corporations, unions and individuals were outlawed after the 2002 mid-term election by the McCain-Feingold law. That's good news for the Republicans, who have traditionally been better at raising smaller amounts from more individuals. The cap on individual contributions is now set at $2,000.

Why does it 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 amount 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 about half a million ballots. But without Florida, neither he nor George 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 George 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 they are meant to ratify the choice of the plurality of a state's voters.

Almost all the states operate a winner-take-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. Without the electoral college, its supporters argue, the sheer volume of voters in California, New York, Texas and Florida would routinely choose the president, swamping the choices of tiny states like Rhode Island. Just seven states have 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 3 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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