US presidential election and the 'all or nothing' story

It is the principle in most US states to decide the list of electors representing their state to directly elect the president for a term of 4 years once.

The 2024 US presidential election officially takes place today, November 5. American voters will go to the polls to choose the owner of the White House - the leader of the country for a 4-year term. The two candidates this year are Vice President Kamala Harris of the Democratic Party and former President Donald Trump of the Republican Party.

More than 240 million people are eligible to vote this year, and 160 million of them are registered to vote. More than 77 million people have already voted in person or by mail ahead of the official election day on November 5.

However, American voters do not directly elect the president. The voters' ballots - the popular vote - will be responsible for choosing electors for their state, and it is those electors who directly elect the president.

Processing mail-in ballots at a center in Los Angeles, California on October 29, 2024

Therefore, it is not the candidate who receives more popular votes or more than half that wins, but the result is decided by the electoral votes. Most recently, in the 2016 US presidential election, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton received about 3 million more popular votes nationwide than Mr. Donald Trump but still lost due to losing the electoral votes.

Why is the US Presidential Election Day the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November?

This has been stipulated in the US Constitution since the 18th century. Accordingly, a candidate must win at least 270 votes out of 538 electoral votes to become the US president. If no presidential candidate receives 270 electoral votes, the US House of Representatives will choose the president and the Senate will choose the vice president.

Each presidential candidate in each state chooses a group of people called their preferred electors. These people are usually chosen after the political parties choose their potential electors through a secret ballot system and attend their party conventions, which take place earlier in the presidential election year.

Voters who go to the polls are essentially voting for their state's electors. The electors' names may or may not appear below the presidential candidates on the popular ballot that voters cast, depending on the state or ballot regulations.

The number of electors allocated to each state is based on the number of seats in the bicameral Congress, which is equal to the total number of seats in the US Senate and House of Representatives. The number of seats in the Senate is fixed at 2, while the number of seats in the House of Representatives varies based on population size. In 2024, some states will have more or less electors than in the 2020 election.

Of these, 48 states and Washington, DC, use the “winner-take-all” or “winner-take-all” system, in which the presidential candidate who receives the most votes in that state receives all of the state’s electoral votes. Meanwhile, Maine and Nebraska use the proportional division of electoral votes.

US Election: Who are the electors that decide the president?

There is no provision in the Constitution or federal law that requires electors to follow the results of their state. However, more than 30 states have specific rules that require each elector to vote for the party and presidential candidate for whom they are electors. Each elector must sign a pledge of service and fill out a ballot for president and vice president for the party’s nominees. If they do not, the elector is considered to be in defiance. In many states, if an elector fills out a ballot in violation of that pledge or leaves a blank ballot, that elector is replaced by a provisional elector.

States will certify their results and electors by December 11 this year. On December 17, electors will vote for president and vice president. On January 6, 2025, Congress will meet to count the electoral votes and announce the official results.

Source: https://thanhnien.vn/bau-cu-tong-thong-my-va-chuyen-duoc-an-ca-nga-ve-khong-185241105085710486.htm