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USA – Electing The President

Elections for:
- President
- House of Congress
- State/local government offices
President
- Age over 35 years
- Born in the USA
- 14 years living in the USA
- member of one of the two main parties, or as an independent candidate
- candidate tries to get well known: election campaign (very expensive)
- rules for election are written in constitution
Presidential elections
- elections every 4 year, just two times
- in primary elections, parties choose their candidate
- final choice of candidates for president and vice-president is in summer
- every state has a number of electors
- winner-take-all-system
- 210 of 538 votes to become president
- in January president goes to Washington
Voting procedures
- elections are on the Tuesday following the first Monday of november
- right to vote: americans over the age of 18(only half of them take part)
- a few weeks before election day, registered voters receive a card of the
polling station
- voters sign their name in a book and cast a vote
- go into voting booth
- there are lists of candidates
- they pull down a metal lever beside the name of the person they want to vote
for
- levers operate mechanical counters, recording the total number of votes for
each candidate
- voting a straight ticket: select all candidates from one party
- voting a split ticket: choose candidates from both parties
Sources
www.stern.de,
www.american-guide.de,
Oxford guide to British and American culture

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