[Music]
it's that time again
the united states presidential election
is around the corner
every four years the american people
decide whether a
democrat or a republican gets to live in
the white house for the next four years
but how exactly does the united states
presidential election
work well to understand this we have to
take a closer look at the entire
election year it all starts with
the primaries in which democrats and
republicans
each decide who is going to be their
presidential candidate
how the primaries work and who is
eligible to vote in them
varies from state to state in some
states
every registered voter is allowed to
vote
in others only voters registered with a
particular
party can cast a ballot in that party's
primary
even the dates the primaries are held
are different in each state
although there are some cluster primary
dates
for example super tuesday on super
tuesday
multiple states hold their primary
and it gets even more complicated than
that because the people don't actually
elect the presidential candidate
directly with their vote they are
technically electing
delegates who in turn will support a
certain candidate
in a primary each candidate is awarded a
certain amount of delegates
or representatives based on the amount
of votes they receive
those delegates will later vote for
their assigned candidate
once the delegates from the various
primaries have been awarded
you can already get a good sense of who
will become the presidential candidate
however the delegates don't officially
vote for their candidates
until the national convention in the end
a candidate must receive over half of
the delegate votes to win the party's
nomination
if no candidate receives over half of
the delegate votes at the convention
the party renegotiates its entries into
the presidential race
additionally sometimes candidates will
end their presidential bids
and then the delegates will have to vote
again
in that case the delegates don't
necessarily have to vote for
their candidates again but are now free
to choose whomever they like
this procedure continues until a
presidential candidate has been found
once the two parties have officially
chosen who is going
head-to-head in the presidential race
the actual
general election is held on the tuesday
after the first monday
in november registered voters over 18
get to vote for their president on that
day
however similar to the primaries the
president
is not elected directly here either
the vote tally for each candidate
determines how many
electors are awarded to that candidate
these electors will then elect the
candidate
each state has a different number of
electors depending on how many people
live in that state
but the electors cannot simply vote for
the candidate they wish
in 48 of the 50 states the elector tally
is awarded
winner take all this means the winner of
that state
gets all the votes from that state let's
say a state has
10 electors if at the end of the voting
day
the tally awards six electors to the
democratic candidate
and four to the republican the democrat
has won the election in this state
and gets all 10 votes while the
republican
gets nothing the winner takes all
this is why in so-called swing states
states in which both parties have an
equally high chance of taking the win
candidates are campaigning harder than
in other states
it is hard to predict the electoral
outcome pre-election
in these states there is a total of 535
electors the candidate who can secure
more than half of the electoral vote
has won the election this is why
electors from the swing states
are especially important once the
electors have been awarded
it is basically clear who will be the
next president of the united states
while officially the decision is only
made by the electoral college
which is the body made up of the awarded
electors
this is usually 41 days after election
day
on that day the electors vote in their
states
these votes are then counted in congress
around the beginning
of january and it is in congress too
where the next occupant of the white
house is later
officially announced finally
the inauguration of the next president
takes place on january 20th
to formally end the election year