Explainer: All about the US Presidential Election
Sai Krishna Muthyanolla
March 19, 2020
The US Presidential election is due for later this year. With improved ties between India & the US, the interest in the 2020 US elections is more than ever. But how does the election for the US President take place? Here is a detailed explainer.
Everyleap year not only marks the global sporting spectacle of Summer Olympics butalso is the year of United States of America’s (USA) Presidential Elections. ThePresident of USA serves for a 4-year term and barring the first election in1789,  the US presidential electionscoincided with the leap year.
Theglobal standing of United States and the soft power it holds makes USpresidential election a keenly watched event with considerable internationalimpact. In the last two decades, the relations between India & USA haveimproved and many Indian expats are in influential positions in the USA. Allthese developments have ensured that the 2020 US Presidential election will bea keenly watched one in India.
Whilethe actual election is scheduled for 03 November 2020, there is a frenetic pre-electionactivity that is already being witnessed in the early months of this year,especially with the Democratic Primaries. The entire idea of an extensive pre-electionactivity across the country to seek party’s nomination as the Presidentialcandidate does look alien from an Indian context.
So,what are the primaries? How does USA elect its president? Does it have anysimilarity with the election process in India?  We explore these and related aspects regardingUS Presidential elections in this explainer.
Only
a natural born US citizen can become President of USA
Onehas to be a natural born US Citizen to be able to become the president of USA.A natural born citizen refers to anyone who is a Citizen of USA at the time ofbirth.
Two
phases in the US Presidential Election cycle
The presidential
election process in United States takes place in two phases.The first phase of voting is to determine the party’s nominee for president.This happens through caucuses and primaries that take place across thedifferent states. The second phase is the general election, which takes placeon a designated day (03 November for this year’s election) across the country.
Primaries
and Caucuses determine the nominee of various parties
Thepolitical landscape of United States is dominated by two political parties, the Democratic
Party and the Republican Party.  During the initial phase of the electoralprocess, both the parties go through Primaries and Caucuses to elect their nomineewho would be contesting on the party ticket for the post of President of UnitedStates (POTUS).
Thepresident is restricted to two terms in office as per the 22nd amendment of US Constitution.
Inmost cases, the current President who is serving his/her first term is theparty’s nominee to run for the president.  In such a case, the primaries of that party arenot a much-contested event.
Caucuses
& Primaries
Caucus& Primary are two ways by which different states elect the nominee for thepresidential contest. Caucuses are organized by political parties. These are held atcounty, district and precinct levels where the participants divide themselvesinto groups according to the candidate they support. Each of the group givespeeches, discuss and try to influence others in respect to the support oftheir candidates.
Onthe other hand, in a primary election, individual voters are required to go torespective polling booth and cast their vote. The voting is done through asecret ballot. The way these primaries are conducted are subject to respectivestate laws and vary from state to state. Broadly there are two types ofprimaries, closed & open. Some states follow a semi-open system as well. Inthe closed ones, only the voters registered with a particular party can vote inthe primary. This deters voting by members of other party or individualunaffiliated voters. In the open primary, all the registered voters as well asunaffiliated have an option to choose the primary of any party to vote.
Thefollowing table shows which of the states follow the Caucus and which onesfollow the primary model. There could be minor changes to these depending onthe party.
The
conduct of Primary elections varies from state to state
Winningthe primary elections is a key step for any candidate to gain the nominationfor presidential election. These primaries are organized by respective statesand local authorities.
Eligible candidates can nominate themselves to contest in the primary elections.
The primaries are conducted on
different dates with traditionally New Hampshire being the first state to conductprimaries. Based on the votes polled by each of thecandidates,  delegates are awarded to thecandidates. The rules for awarding the delegates differ for Democratic andRepublican parties and from state to state. Democrats usually use aproportional method while it is more varied among the states in case ofRepublican primaries.
In thecase of a caucus, the votes at the end of the caucus determine the number ofdelegates won by the candidates. The election season generally kicks off withIowa Caucus.
Number ofdelegates won by members in both the primaries & caucuses are known aspledged delegates, which means they have to vote for the candidate that won, atthe national convention.
Primaries for State
Elections
Inaddition to the presidential election primaries, the state level elections inthe USA also follow a primary system. There are 6 different
types of primaries opted by each of the states withLouisiana and Nebraska having their own way of conducting primaries as far asstate level elections are concerned.
Who are Super Delegates?
Apartfrom the pledged delegates that are awarded to the contesting candidates ofboth the parties through primaries and caucuses, each of the parties also have somethingknown as ‘Super Delegates’. These super delegates are higher rankingofficials of the respective parties and are generally unpledged to any of thecandidates prior to National Convention. They have the option to vote duringthe National Convention to determine the Presidential Nominee
Thecriteria vary between Republican & Democratic Party.
The National
Convention to choose the nominees
TheDemocratic National Convention  (DNC) isan event in which delegates of the Democratic Party choose the party’s nomineesfor president and vice president. For any candidate to win the democratic partynomination, they will need 1,991 of the 3,979 pledged delegates at the DNC. Ifnone of the candidates wins the required number of pledged delegates, then thesuper delegates come into picture. More about how this works can be read here.
For 2020,Democratic Party has banned the voting of Super Delegates at the first round ofthe national convention. In other words, they come into picture only when acandidate does not have the required number of pledged delegates. This change ismade in view of the criticism that voting of Super Delegates favours thetraditional candidate.
On theother hand, any Republican party candidate needs 1276 of the 2550 pledgeddelegates to win the nomination.
The National
Convention is organized by each of Democratic and Republican party tofinalize on the Presidential Nomination of their party. As per the generalrules,  the clear-cut winner of theprimaries who could have received the highest number of delegates from theprimaries wins the nomination. Hence the National Convention becomes a platformto officially ratify the presidential candidate of the respective party.
If thereare multiple rounds of voting was required during national convention todetermine the presidential candidate, such a National Convention is called as “Contested
Convention”.  Once a candidatereceives the presidential nomination from the Party, he/she can choose theirVice-Presidential nominee, colloquially referred to as Running Mate.
President
gets elected through the Electoral College
Unlikethe other elections in the United States, the President does not get electeddirectly through the popular vote. An Electoral College determines thewinner in the presidential race.
TheElectoral College is considered to be a compromise between the propositionof  electing through popular vote andelection by Congress.
Article
II of the constitution refers to ‘Electors’, although there is no mentionof Electoral College in US Constitution. This is further supported by 12th Amendment.
TheElectoral College consists of 538 members. The number of votes
allocated (electoral college members) to each state is proportional to thepopulation of the respective state. A candidate should receive minimum 270Electoral college votes to be the winner. The number of electoral collegemembers from each state is in the map below.
What is
the Election Process?
(Reference: How to Become President of United States –Infographic)
The one
who wins the Popular vote may not always be the winner
One ofthe drawbacks in the electoral college system is that it is possible for acandidate to win the popular vote across the country but still lose thepresidential election because of the electoral college system.
Forinstance, in the 2016
presidential elections, Hillary Clinton won the popular vote acrossthe country with 48.18% votes while Donald Trump polled 46.09%.
Thoughthe difference in popular vote was more than 2%, Donald Trump won convincinglythrough the electoral college system by winning 304 electoral college votescompared to 227 for Hillary Clinton.
Similarly in the year 2000, Democratic candidate Al Gore won the popular vote while Republican George W.Bush won the Electoral College.