Presidential Election Process: How the President of the U.S. Is Elected

Why do U.S. presidential elections take so long? How does the election work? Who can vote? Who chooses the vice-president? What is Electoral College? The answers to all these questions can be found in this video.

A few notes to explain some words:

- Primary is a preliminary election where party members vote to choose a candidate for their party.

- Forefathers are The Founding Fathers of the United States. George Washington, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, Alexander Hamilton, John Jay led the American Revolution and established the United States of America.

TRANSCRIPT: We are in the middle of the election process for president of the United States, and I thought it might be a little informative for you to understand how a president is truly elected.

So our presidents are elected by being in a two-party system. In America today, those are the Democratic or Republican party. Both candidates from the different parties go around the country talking to people. And then they have what is called a primary. After the person who gets the most votes in the primaries- they become the nominated candidate from their party. And once the nomination process has been concluded, each of those candidates that are chosen pick their vice-presidential candidate. Their vice presidential candidate is not elected. They go with each other, and it is called a ticket. The president and vice president, (party candidates) are on a ticket. They are on a Republican ticket or a Democratic ticket.

And then they go around giving speeches- all around the United States. Also, part of that process is that they have a debate system where they will have 2, 3, 4, or 5 different debates, and it will depend on the candidates’ party on how many debates they will have.

Then, there will be a vice presidential debate for the Republican and Democratic Vice- Presidential candidates. They will talk about different issues and topics that matter to the American people.
Then the Tuesday following the first Monday in the month of November-people will go vote for the president. They will go to what is called a precinct, an area for voting.

And people will stand on line and then vote. When you go vote- they will have a record that you have applied to vote. You have to be eighteen years old to vote, and you have to be a citizen of the United States. Each state has different ways of registering people to vote. In some states, you have to be in the United States for fourteen years continuously, and some not.

If you are in the Military, you may vote from long distance, and you send in your ballot in and it is counted. Sometimes those votes are counted after the actual Election Day is over but they are still counted. They must sent in by a particular time period before the actual Election Day. If it is later than that- vote will not be counted.

Most people think that it’s is a matter of counting votes to figure out who becomes the next president after that particular day. We call that the moment when you no longer can vote –( the polls have closed)- but that’s actually not true. How you become president is through votes from an Electoral College. Those(voting) individuals are called electors.

Our forefathers chose a college of certain people who would cast their vote. The Electoral College is made up of electors, and these individuals are chosen by working for their party and there is a certain number per state that gets to vote. So most people think that they chose the President of the United States- but actually that is not true- the Electoral College chooses them in the first week of December. And they generally vote the way the population wanted them to vote. But they may chose not to if they think this person could be a dictator, or a monarch. They also have a freedom of choice based on an understanding of what our forefathers wanted for this country.

So… the power of the Electoral College- the idea is to protect all Americans from the wrong person being elected. And I don’t mean the wrong person in terms of their philosophy- if this person was trying to do something bad to the United States; they have the freedom of choice. Then in January, the President is inaugurated.
And on that particular day, he/ (she) becomes the President of the United States. In the morning, the previous President leaves—flies on Air Force One to wherever they (the First Family) want to go, and the next family moves into the White House.

I hope this helps you understand a little more about the election process that we are going through right now, and I hope, if you enjoyed this video that you will subscribe to our channel and like us!

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