Every four years the United States holds a presidential election to choose one President and a Vice President. Throughout the year there are several voting events that determine which candidates will appear on the general election ballot. State and local elections offices are the most trusted source of information about how each election is conducted.
People who want to be President usually have similar ideas about how the government should work and they form political parties based on those beliefs. Those with the most votes in a series of political events called primaries and caucuses become the final candidates for their party’s nomination. The final candidate and his or her running mate then campaign for the general election.
In the United States a person becomes President when they receive a majority of electoral votes. Each state has a certain number of electoral votes based on the size of its population and the number of seats in the U.S. House and Senate. The state’s Chief Election Official then certifies the votes to Congress. On January 6, the sitting Vice President convenes a meeting of both houses in Joint Session to count the electoral votes. The Vice President opens and reads the votes in alphabetical order. The candidate with the most votes is declared President and the candidate with the second highest number of votes is elected Vice President.
The Electoral College is designed to prevent large states from dominating the presidential race. However, since the 1890s, there have been five times when a person has won the popular vote but lost the presidency. This included Andrew Jackson in 1824 (to John Quincy Adams), Samuel Tilden in 1876 (to Rutherford B. Hayes), Grover Cleveland in 1888 (to Benjamin Harrison), Al Gore in 2000, and Donald Trump in 2016.
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