Q&A

Must be born in the USA. Or, if you were born abroad, both of your parents must be US citizens. Barack Obama's father, for example, did not have American citizenship, but Barack himself automatically received the opportunity to run for president because he was born in the United States. Republican John McCain, who ran for president in 2000 and 2008, has the opposite situation - he was born in Panama, but was able to obtain American citizenship because both parents were Americans.

You must live 14 years of your life in the United States.

The candidate must be at least 35 years old. John Kennedy was the youngest president - he won the election at the age of 43. There is no age limit. Ronald Reagan left the presidency at age 77.

If a candidate meets all of these requirements, then they must find a public platform to announce their intention to run. It’s a good idea at this point to decide who will be the manager of your presidential campaign - he will be responsible for raising money and PR for the candidate. When the first $5 thousand is collected, you need to register your candidacy withthe Federal Election Commission and establish a campaign committee. And then : “you need to make speeches, kiss babies, shake hands, pose for photographs and find other ways to contact the average American.”

Attention: you can only serve two terms as President of the United States (not consecutively, but in total). This restriction was introduced after the Second World War. In 1944, popular President Franklin Roosevelt won a fourth term. Few people objected to his fourth term - at that time there was a war and the country was being managed by an experienced ruler...
But when he died a year after his re-election, it was decided to limit the number of possible re-elections to two henceforth, so that there was no possibility of establishing a dictatorship. Is there a column “Against all” in the ballot? In the USA, the column “against all” (None of these candidates) is provided only by the legislation of the state of Nevada. With the help of this column, state authorities tried to combat voter apathy that came after the Watergate scandal , as a result of which President Nixon was dismissed. Why are US presidents not elected directly, but through the institution of electors? What is it? There have never been direct elections in the United States. The Electoral College was established by the Founding Fathers of America because they did not fully trust direct democracy. In addition, in the 18th century it was not technically possible to count the votes of all voters across the vast territory of the United States. Collecting signatures could take too long. It was easier with electors - they could come to Washington and vote from their state. The Founding Fathers considered that it would be wiser to recruit literate electors who could help the illiterate population decide on their choice. This system has long been criticized, calling it archaic. Over 200 years, Congress has received 700 proposals to abolish such a system.

Today there are 538 electors in the country. The number of electors per state is equal to the sum of the representatives from the upper and lower houses of the US Parliament (senators and congressmen). The larger the state's population, the more electors. Let's say California, with a population of 37.7 million, has 55 electors. In Alaska, where the population is 50 times smaller, there are three. Electors are usually party activists or prominent personalities in the state who do not hold public office. These electors are chosen by the party.

Electors wait for residents to vote. In most states, the candidate who receives the most popular votes receives all of that state's electoral votes. But in Nebraska and Maine, the number of electors is proportional to the popular vote. Thus, the winner is not the one for whom the most residents voted, but the one who received more than 270 electoral votes. Are there scandals with vote counting in the USA? Republican George W. Bush won the 2000 presidential race with fewer popular votes than Democrat Al Gore.
On the morning after the election, Bush had 246 electoral votes and Gore had 255. Several states remained uncounted where the difference between the votes was tiny. Of these states, the decisive state was Florida with its 25 electors, where George Bush's brother Jeb was the governor at that moment.
At the first count, Bush was ahead of his opponent by only a thousand votes out of six million ballots. The votes were recounted several times over the course of a month. As a result, the case went to court. A Florida court ruled that 25 of its electoral votes went to Bush. Thus, Al Gore lost the race, although he received 544 thousand more votes than George Bush. What are primaries and how are they structured? Primary is a procedure for selecting a single party candidate when several people want to run for the same party. They last six months, this time from January to June. At this time, all candidates from one party fight fiercely for votes. In all states, they take turns voting for their favorite candidate in their party. The party candidate who receives the most votes becomes its nominee. Why is a vice president needed? How is it chosen? The vice president is chosen by the presidential candidate himself. The presidential candidate’s team is guided by the principle: the second person in tandem must cover the weak points of “number one.” For example, in the 2008 election race, candidate Barack Obama was considered an inexperienced young senator, so he was strengthened by Joe Biden, a mastodon who spent 36 years in the Senate. Additionally, Biden is Catholic, which gave Obama voters of that faith. After much weighing, opinion polls and research, the presidential candidate’s team chooses “No. 2”.

According to the US Constitution, the vice president has two duties: to replace the president if he dies or is dismissed, and to be the chairman of the upper house of the US Parliament, the Senate. There are 100 deputies in the Senate, the vote of the chairman can thus tip the scales in favor of the adoption of a particular law in the event of an equal vote. In addition, the president gives instructions to his deputy, for example, to represent the country at the inaugurations or funerals of presidents of other countries, and to negotiate both on domestic and foreign policy issues. How is the government formed after elections? The President is also the head of the government. The Cabinet consists of ministers (heads of departments). Ministers are appointed by the president, but they must be approved by a 2/3 vote of senators. Why have representatives of third parties never had the opportunity to be elected to the highest office in the state? Americans who are not members of either the Republican or Democratic parties can also run for president of the United States. But they are unlikely to win.
Thus, few people know that in addition to Romney and Obama, Gary Johnson from the Libertarian Party and Jill Stein from the Green Party are also running for election in 2012. 63% of Americans have no opinion at all about Johnson because they know too little about him.

There are several reasons why an independent candidate has virtually no chance of winning the US presidential election. First, unless you belong to one of the two major parties in the United States (Republican or Democratic), you do not have the nationwide party infrastructure necessary to participate in races. There is no developed network of regional headquarters, no network of volunteers, and, accordingly, there is no opportunity to quickly and effectively raise sufficient money for the election campaign and work directly with the local population. According to surveys regularly conducted in the United States, about 40% of American citizens are staunch Democrats, another about 40% are staunch Republicans. They will vote for any candidate nominated as the presidential candidate at the party convention. The second reason lies in the peculiarities of the electoral system in the United States. Most states have a first-past-the-post system, in which all electoral votes go to the candidate who receives the most popular votes. For example, Theodore Roosevelt, who was a Republican president from 1901-1909, ran for president a third time as an independent candidate in 1912. 27% of voters voted for him. But he did not receive a single electoral vote.