First, the primary election of political parties: the primary election in the United States is one of the main characteristics of the United States. Among the democratic countries in the world, only the United States relies on primary elections to nominate members of political parties in Congress and states, and state primary elections choose presidential candidates. Originated in the southern United States at the end of 19. 19 17, most States in the United States held primary elections directly through political parties to facilitate nomination. But it has experienced a complicated and tortuous process in this century. The primary election is held between February and June in the election year. Political parties hold primary elections in each state. The primary election has two purposes: first, the registered candidates of all political parties compete for the nomination of their own presidential candidates; Second, each party elects state representatives to attend its national congress (Democrats and Republicans determine the number of state representatives according to the number of state members in Congress and the strength of their party in the last election). According to the laws of each state, there are two basic forms of primary election: one is the party group meeting, also known as the primary election meeting, the grassroots meeting, and the party core member meeting. It is an organized citizen group, representing its political party and having the right to recommend its candidates. The two parties hold grass-roots party meetings at every election point in a state. Voters who support the party announced on the spot who will be the party's presidential candidate and elected representatives to attend the county-level representative meeting. Then, the county representative meeting elects the state representative meeting, and the state representative meeting elects the national congress. The purpose of this meeting is to show the party's presidential candidate that party member, who supports a candidate, wants to hold elections in every state. The other is direct primary election, in which party representatives are directly elected and voters vote for a presidential candidate. Direct presidential elections are held at the state level to show who voters in each state want to be the candidate of their party. According to state laws, voters in some States directly vote for their favorite presidential candidate, while voters in some States vote for representatives who "guarantee" to support a candidate at the party nomination meeting. Direct primary schools can be divided into open primary schools and closed primary schools. In an open primary election, voters enter the polling station before deciding which party to participate in the primary election. In a closed primary election, voters can only vote for the candidate of their party. However, most political parties choose closed primary elections, which requires voters to have a clear party position. Among them, New Hampshire was the first state to hold a primary election, and Iowa was the first state in the United States to hold a caucus meeting. The election results of these two States will affect the election results of subsequent States and are regarded as the wind ball of the general election.
2. National congresses of political parties: Generally, the two parties hold national congresses in July and August, with the purpose of electing their respective presidential and vice presidential candidates and formulating their own political programs (presided over by the nominated presidential candidates). In fact, the nomination of presidential candidates is decided by voters in the primary stage, and it is already clear how many representatives each presidential candidate has. Therefore, the national congress is actually only the last procedure to approve the nomination of presidential and vice presidential candidates. The importance of the party's national congress is gradually decreasing, and party leaders have not played much role. Throughout the19th century and the early 20th century, the congress was controlled by the leaders of political parties in the state, who used their influence to carefully select delegates to ensure that they voted "correctly" at the congress. Some potential candidates refused to participate in the primary election because they had the support of state party leaders to avoid losing the primary election. On the contrary, some candidates who won the state primary elections were not nominated for the party congress. The presidential and vice presidential candidates elected by Congress must be registered with the state officials in charge of election affairs before they can be included in the list of presidential and vice presidential candidates in the general election. Independent presidential candidates need to collect the minimum number of signatures of registered voters to be eligible to appear on the ballot.
3. National campaign: From September to 1 1 month, after the national congress, the presidential and vice presidential candidates proposed by political parties immediately began a long and exhausting national campaign, which lasted for 8 to 9 weeks. They make speeches on TV, debate on TV, advertise, meet voters in various states, express their policy agenda and win the support of voters, all of which cost a lot of money. During this period, various interest groups made political donations to the two parties, and the candidates also raised money in person. The fund-raising for the 2004 presidential election was restricted by law for the first time. The MacKay-Valdez Act prohibits enterprise trade unions from making unlimited donations to the President, and the upper limit of individual donations is raised to $2,000, which is beneficial to * * * and political parties that are traditionally good at raising small donations.
4. Referendum: The referendum will be held on Tuesday after the first week of the election year 1 1 month. According to the constitution, the number of electors elected by each state is equal to the total number of senators and representatives who have the right to vote in that state. There are no members of Congress in the District of Columbia. 196 1 Article 23 of the constitutional amendment stipulates that the special zone, which constitutes the seat of the government of the United States, shall be the electors for the president and vice president in the manner prescribed by Congress. For this purpose, the SAR should be regarded as a state, and the number of electors should be equal to the total number of senators and representatives it has the right to elect, but it should not exceed the number of electors in the state with the least population. At present, there are three electors in this special zone. Therefore, the electors equivalent to 100 senators (two from each state), plus the number equivalent to 435 representatives, plus three electors from the District of Columbia, have a total of 538 electoral votes. In order to ensure the balance between the legislative power and the executive power of the federal government, senators, representatives or people who hold credit positions or beneficial positions in the United States shall not be elected as electors. First of all, each state party organization provides an electoral college candidate who supports the party's presidential candidate to the officials in charge of electoral affairs in the state, and the number is equal to the number of voters in the state. Usually, political parties nominate electors through their state party congress elections or by appointing state party leaders, and independent presidential candidates rarely designate their electors. These voters all promised to vote for the presidential candidate of a political party. On that day, the people of each state voted for the presidential electors, and they chose which party's electors chose the president and vice president on their behalf. In fact, the names of presidential candidates and the party that won the presidential candidate conference are usually written on the ballot, instead of listing the presidential candidates. Voters vote for the electors who support the presidential and vice presidential candidates, not the candidates themselves. At present, except Maine and Nebraska, California adopts the popular vote system, that is, if the presidential candidate gets more votes in the state than his opponent, he can get all the electoral votes in the state (two votes in the Senate), and the rest will be given to the majority winners in various national constituencies. This system is not based on the constitution, but on the laws of each state. Usually, after the voting results of big States are announced, the gap between the leaders will widen, or the gap between the leaders will narrow sharply. After this stage, who is elected president has actually been determined, unless there are unexpected circumstances. Therefore, the next electoral college vote is only a form and has no substantive significance. Because at the time of the referendum, voters have promised to vote for the presidential candidate of a political party.
5. Electoral College Voting: On the first Monday after the second Wednesday in the election year1February, members of the electoral college vote separately in the state capitals, with one vote for the president and the other vote for the vice president. The reason for voting separately is that the designers of the system think it can avoid corruption, secret transactions and foreign influence. In order to prevent voters from voting for their favorite son in their state, voters must have at least one vote for candidates outside their state. Of course, this is not a problem now, because it was solved when the party nominated: the presidential and vice presidential candidates came from different States. At first, members of the electoral college were considered as the smartest, most politically experienced and non-partisan citizens, and they were able to make their own independent judgments in the presidential election. The arrangement of the founding fathers was destroyed by the appearance of political parties, and the members of the electoral college were manipulated by their respective political parties and turned into voting machines.
Then, the ballot paper is sealed and sent to the seat of the US government and handed over to the Speaker of the Senate. The speaker of the Senate opens all the certificates in front of all the members of the Senate and House of Representatives, and then counts the votes. The person who gets the most presidential votes is the president if the number of votes exceeds half of the total number of electors selected. If no one obtains such a majority, the House of Representatives shall immediately elect the President from the list with the largest number of votes but no more than three. But in the presidential election, the votes are counted by state, and all representatives of each state have one vote. Two-thirds of the States each have one or more representatives present, which constitutes a quorum for the election of the president, and the runoff requires more than half of the votes of all States. The person who gets the most votes from the vice president is the vice president if he gets more than half of the total number of electors. If no one gets more than half of the votes, the Senate will elect the vice president from the two people with the most votes on the list. The quorum for the election of the vice president consists of two thirds of the total number of senators, and the election of the vice president requires more than half of the total number of senators.
The above is the whole process of the US presidential election. We can see:
1. Political parties play a very important role in the election. Political parties exist for elections, and most processes revolve around them. However, the Founding Fathers didn't have political parties when formulating the presidential election procedure. They meant to guard against political parties, which changed the whole election procedure.
2. Primary election and referendum are two extremely important stages. Because these two stages decide who will be the president, the electoral college voting stipulated in the Constitution becomes a form and a confirmation of facts, so it can be said that the presidential election in the United States is actually a direct election, but this direct election is conducted on a state-by-state basis, although it is an indirect election in terms of law and procedure.
3. The President and the Vice President are the only two officials elected by the national voters in the government at the national level. Senators and representatives are elected by a minority of voters in state or congressional districts.
4. The American election is very complicated. Some American scholars say that the complicated procedure for Americans to choose a president is a mystery to people in most countries. American politicians can only win the election if they are well versed in the actual operation of the election procedure. Moreover, for us, the key to understanding the electoral process in the United States is to look at its initial process and the activities carried out by various political parties (because the candidates are all represented by one political party), rather than the final electoral college vote.
5. On the surface, the development of the electoral college system violates the original intention of the design, but the balance of interests between big States and small States, as well as the federal system of the United States, and the role of achieving maximum democracy have not changed, and it has adapted to the development of the times and has strong vitality and adaptability.
But the electoral system in the United States is not perfect, especially the electoral college system, which is criticized by many people and sometimes leads to unfair elections. However, such a system design has maintained the development and prosperity of the United States for more than 200 years, and made the elected president get the support of most people, showing the wisdom and wisdom of the founders. This is a great design.
As of the writing of this article, although the article has been finished, I still have some questions about the American general election, such as ● Is the primary election about political parties, the group behavior of political parties or the state behavior? How to organize voters to vote at this time, and who will bear the expenses? In fact, the presidential candidate was decided before the electoral college voted. Does this violate the US Constitution (it may not violate the US government, but I think it is contradictory)? ● How did the winner-take-all rule form * * * knowledge and implement it in 48 states of the United States? I haven't figured it out yet, and I deeply feel the complexity of the procedure of the American election.