United States presidential election

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Elections for President and Vice President of the United States are indirect elections in which voters cast ballots for a slate of electors of the U.S. Electoral College, who in turn directly elect the President and Vice President. They occur quadrennially (the count beginning with the year 1792) on Election Day, the first Tuesday after the first Monday of November.^[1] The most recent election occurred on November 4, 2008, with the next one scheduled for November 6, 2012.

The process is regulated by a combination of both federal and state laws. Each state is allocated a number of Electoral College electors equal to the number of its Senators and Representatives in the U.S. Congress.^[2] Additionally, Washington, D.C. is given a number of electors equal to the number held by the smallest state.^[3] U.S. territories are not represented in the Electoral College.

Under the U.S. Constitution, each state legislature is allowed to designate a method of choosing electors.^[2] Thus, the popular vote on Election Day is conducted by the various states and not directly by the federal government. Once chosen, the electors can vote for anyone, but – with rare exceptions like an unpledged elector or faithless elector – they vote for their designated candidates and their votes are certified by Congress in early January. The Congress is the final judge of the electors; the last serious dispute was in United States presidential election, 2000.

The nomination process, including the primary elections and the nominating conventions, were never specified in the Constitution, and were instead developed by the states and the political parties.

Contents 1 History 2 Nominating process 3 The popular vote on Election Day 4 Electoral college 5 Trends 6 Results 7 Voter turnout 8 Statistical forecasts 9 See also 10 Notes 11 External links

History

Article Two of the United States Constitution originally established the method of presidential elections, including the electoral college. This was a result of a compromise between those constitutional framers who wanted the Congress to choose the president, and those who preferred a national popular vote.

Each state is allocated a number of electors that is equal to the size of its delegation in both houses of Congress combined. With the ratification of the 23rd Amendment to the Constitution in 1961, the District of Columbia is also granted a number of electors, equal to the number of those held by the least populous state. However, U.S. territories are not represented in the Electoral College.

Under the original system established by Article Two, electors could cast two votes to two different candidates for president. The candidate with the highest number of votes became the president, and the second-place candidate became the vice president. This presented a problem during the presidential election of 1800 when Aaron Burr received the same number of electoral votes as Thomas Jefferson and challenged Jefferson's election to the office. In the end, Jefferson was chosen as the president due to Alexander Hamilton's influence in the House of Representatives. This created a deep rivalry between Burr and Hamilton which resulted in their famous 1804 duel.

In response to the 1800 election, the 12th Amendment was passed, requiring electors to cast two distinct votes: one for President and another for Vice President. The Amendment also established rules when no candidate wins a majority vote in the Electoral College. If no candidate receives a majority, the selection of President is decided by a ballot of the House of Representatives. For the purposes of electing the President, each state only has one vote. A ballot of the Senate is held to choose the Vice President. In this ballot, each senator has one vote. If the President is not chosen by Inauguration Day, the Vice President-elect acts as President. If neither are chosen by then, Congress by law determines who shall act as President, pursuant to the 20th Amendment.

In the presidential election of 1824, Andrew Jackson received a plurality, but not a majority, of electoral votes cast. The election was thrown to the House of Representatives, and John Quincy Adams was elected to the presidency. In this case as well, a deep rivalry was fermented, this time between Andrew Jackson and House Speaker Henry Clay, who had also been a candidate in the election.

Constitutionally, the manner for choosing electors is determined within each state by its legislature. During the first presidential election in 1789, only 6 of the 13 original states chose electors by any form of popular vote.^[4] Gradually throughout the years, the states began conducting popular elections to help choose their slate of electors, resulting in the overall, nationwide indirect election system that it is today.

Although the nationwide popular vote does not directly determine the winner of a presidential election, it does strongly correlate with who is the victor. In 52 of the 56 total elections held so far (about 93 percent), the winner of the Electoral College vote has also carried the national popular vote.

However, candidates can fail to get the most votes in the nationwide popular vote in a Presidential election and still win that election. In the 1824 election mentioned above, Jackson won both the popular vote and the electoral vote, but it was eventually decided by the House. Then in 1876, 1888 and 2000, the winner of electoral vote actually lost the popular vote outright. Numerous constitutional amendments have been submitted seeking to replace the Electoral College with a direct popular vote, but none has ever successfully passed both Houses of Congress. Another alternate proposal is the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact, an interstate compact whereby individual participating states agree to allocate their electors based on the winner of the national popular vote instead of just their respective statewide results.

Nominating process

Main articles: United States presidential primary and United States presidential nominating convention

The modern nominating process of U.S. presidential elections currently consists of two major parts: a series of presidential primary elections and caucuses held in each state, and the presidential nominating conventions held by each political party. This process was never included in the United States Constitution, and thus evolved over time by the political parties to clear the field of candidates.

The primary elections and caucuses are run by state and local governments. Some states only hold primary elections, some only hold caucuses, and others use a combination of both. These primaries and caucuses are staggered between January and June before the federal election, with Iowa and New Hampshire traditionally holding the first presidential state caucus and primary, respectively.

Like the general election, presidential caucuses or primaries are indirect elections. The major political parties officially vote for their presidential candidate at their respective nominating conventions, usually all held in the summer before the federal election. Depending on each state's law and state's political party rules, when voters cast ballots for a candidate in a presidential caucus or primary, they may actually be voting to award delegates "bound" to vote for a candidate at the presidential nominating conventions, or they may simply be expressing an opinion that the state party is not bound to follow in selecting delegates to their respective national convention.

Unlike the general election, voters in the U.S. territories can also elect delegates to the national conventions.

In addition to delegates chosen during primaries and caucuses, state delegations to both the Democratic and Republican conventions also include "unpledged" delegates who can vote for whomever they want. For Republicans, these include top party officials. Democrats have a more expansive group of unpledged delegates called "superdelegates", who are party leaders and elected officials.

Each party's presidential candidate also chooses a vice presidential nominee to run with him on the same ticket, and this choice is basically rubber-stamped by the convention.

The popular vote on Election Day

Under the constitution, the manner for choosing electors for the Electoral College is determined by each state's legislature. Today, the states and the District of Columbia each conduct their own popular elections on Election Day to help determine their respective slate of electors. Thus, the presidential election is really an amalgamation of separate and simultaneous state elections instead of a single national election run by the federal government.

Like any other election in the United States, the eligibility of an individual for voting is set out in the Constitution and also regulated at state level. The Constitution states that suffrage cannot be denied on grounds of race or color, sex or age for citizens eighteen years or older. Beyond these basic qualifications, it is the responsibility of state legislatures to regulate voter eligibility.

Generally, voters are required to vote on a ballot where they select the candidate of their choice. The presidential ballot is actually voting "for the electors of a candidate" meaning that the voter is not actually voting for the candidate, but endorsing a slate of electors pledged to vote for a specific Presidential and Vice Presidential candidate.

Many voting ballots allow a voter to "blanket vote" for all candidates in a particular political party or to select individual candidates on a line by line voting system. Which candidates appear on the voting ticket is determined through a legal process known as ballot access. Usually, the size of the candidate's political party and the results of the major nomination conventions determine who is pre-listed on the presidential ballot. Thus, the presidential election ticket will not list every single candidate running for President, but only those who have secured a major party nomination or whose size of their political party warrants having been formally listed. Laws are in effect to have other candidates pre-listed on a ticket, provided that a sufficient number of voters have endorsed the candidate, usually through a signature list.

The final way to be elected for president is to have one's name written in at the time of election as a write-in candidate. This is used for candidates who did not fulfill the legal requirements to be pre-listed on the voting ticket. It is also used by voters to express a distaste for the listed candidates, by writing in an alternative candidate for president such as Mickey Mouse or comedian Stephen Colbert, whose application was voted down by the South Carolina Democratic Party executive council. In any event, a write-in candidate has never won an election for President of the United States.

Because U.S. territories are not represented in the Electoral College, U.S. citizens in those areas do not vote in the general election for President. Guam has held straw polls for president since the 1980 election in order to draw attention to this fact.^[5]

Electoral college

Main article: Electoral College (United States)

Most state laws establish a winner-take-all system, wherein the ticket that wins a plurality of votes wins all of that state's allocated electoral votes, and thus has their slate of electors chosen to vote in the Electoral College. Maine and Nebraska do not use this method, opting instead to give two electoral votes to the statewide winner and one electoral vote to the winner of each Congressional district.

Each state's winning slate of electors then meets at their respective state's capital on the first Monday after the second Wednesday in December to cast their electoral votes on separate ballots for President and Vice President. Although Electoral College members can technically vote for anyone under the U.S. Constitution, 24 states have laws to punish faithless electors, ^[6] those who do not cast their electoral votes for the person whom they have pledged to elect.

In early January, the total Electoral College vote count is opened by the sitting Vice President, acting in his capacity as President of the Senate, and read aloud to a joint session of the incoming Congress, which was elected at the same time as the President. In the event that no candidate receives a majority of the electoral vote (currently at least 270), the President is determined by the rules outlined by the 12th Amendment.

Unless there are faithless electors, disputes, or other controversies, the events in December and January mentioned above are largely a formality in the public eye since the winner can be determined based on the state-by-state popular vote results.

Trends

A number of trends in the political experience of presidents have been observed over the years. In recent decades, the presidential nominees of the Democratic and Republican parties have been either incumbent presidents, sitting or former vice presidents, sitting or former U.S. Senators, or sitting or former state Governors. The last major nominee from either party who had not previously served in such an office was General Dwight D. Eisenhower, who won the Republican nomination and ultimately the presidency in the 1952 election.

The U.S. Secretary of State used to be a stepping-stone to the White House, with five of the six Presidents who served between 1801 and 1841 previously holding that office. However, since 1841, only one Secretary of State has gone on to be President (James Buchanan).

Fourteen Presidents have previously served as Vice President. However only John Adams (1796), Thomas Jefferson (1800), Martin Van Buren (1836), Richard Nixon (1968) and George H. W. Bush (1988) began their first term after actually winning an election. Among the remaining nine who began their first term as President as per the presidential line of succession after their respective predecessor died or resigned from office, Theodore Roosevelt, Calvin Coolidge, Harry S Truman, and Lyndon B. Johnson were reelected. John Tyler, Millard Fillmore, Andrew Johnson, Chester A. Arthur, and Gerald Ford served as President but never won any presidential election.

In the most recent 2008 election, the nominees of both major parties, Barack Obama and John McCain, were sitting U.S. Senators. Before 2008, fifteen presidents previously served in the Senate, including four of the five Presidents who served between 1945 and 1974. However, only two out of those fifteen were sitting U.S. Senators at the time they were elected president (Warren G. Harding in 1920 and John F. Kennedy in 1960). Major-party candidate Senators Andrew Jackson (1824), Lewis Cass (1848), Stephen Douglas (1860), Barry Goldwater (1964), George McGovern (1972), and John Kerry (2004) all lost their elections.

Despite the 2008 election, contemporary electoral success has clearly favored state governors. Of the last six presidents, four (Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton and George W. Bush) have been governors of a state. Geographically, these presidents were from either very large states (California, Texas) or from a state south of the Mason-Dixon Line and east of Texas (Georgia, Arkansas). In all, sixteen presidents have been former governors, including seven who were in office as governor at the time of their election to the presidency.

Only one sitting member of the House of Representatives has been elected president (James A. Garfield), although eighteen presidents have been former members of the House. Only two Presidents, John Quincy Adams (serving in the House) and Andrew Johnson (serving in the Senate), have served in Congress after being President.

Results

See also: List of United States presidential elections by Electoral College margin

The following is a table of electoral college results:

Political party of each candidate is indicated in parentheses

* Winner received less than an absolute majority of the popular vote.

† Losing candidate received a plurality of the popular vote.

‡ Losing candidate received an absolute majority of the popular vote.

** As the second place winner, was elected Vice President as per the rules in place prior to the Twelfth Amendment.

Order	Election year	Winner	Other major candidates[7]
1st	1789	George Washington (no party) – 69	John Adams** (no party) – 34 John Jay (no party) – 9 Robert H. Harrison (no party) – 6 John Rutledge (no party) – 6
2nd	1792	George Washington (no party) – 132	John Adams** (Federalist) – 77 George Clinton (Democratic-Republican) – 50
3rd	1796	John Adams (Federalist) – 71	Thomas Jefferson** (Democratic-Republican) – 68 Thomas Pinckney (Federalist) – 59 Aaron Burr (Democratic-Republican) – 30 Samuel Adams (Democratic-Republican) – 15 Oliver Ellsworth (Federalist) – 11 George Clinton (Democratic-Republican) – 7
4th	1800	Thomas Jefferson (Democratic-Republican) – 73[8]	Aaron Burr (Democratic-Republican) – 73[8] John Adams (Federalist) – 65 Charles Cotesworth Pinckney (Federalist) – 64
5th	1804	Thomas Jefferson (Democratic-Republican) – 162	Charles Cotesworth Pinckney (Federalist) – 14
6th	1808	James Madison (Democratic-Republican) – 122	Charles Cotesworth Pinckney (Federalist) – 47 George Clinton (Democratic-Republican) – 6 James Monroe (Democratic-Republican) – 0
7th	1812	James Madison (Democratic-Republican) – 128	DeWitt Clinton (Federalist) – 89
8th	1816	James Monroe (Democratic-Republican) – 183	Rufus King (Federalist) – 34
9th	1820	James Monroe (Democratic-Republican) – 215/218[9]	(not opposed)
10th	1824*†	John Quincy Adams* (Democratic-Republican) – 84[10]	Andrew Jackson† (Democratic-Republican) – 99[10] William H. Crawford (Democratic-Republican) – 41 Henry Clay (Democratic-Republican) – 37
11th	1828	Andrew Jackson (Democratic) – 178	John Quincy Adams (National Republican) – 83
12th	1832	Andrew Jackson (Democratic) – 219	Henry Clay (National Republican) – 49 John Floyd (Nullifier) – 11 William Wirt (Anti-Masonic) – 7
13th	1836	Martin Van Buren (Democratic) – 170	William Henry Harrison (Whig) – 73 Hugh Lawson White (Whig) – 26 Daniel Webster (Whig) – 14 Willie Person Mangum (Whig) – 11
14th	1840	William Henry Harrison (Whig) – 234	Martin Van Buren (Democratic) – 60
15th	1844*	James K. Polk* (Democratic) – 170	Henry Clay (Whig) – 105 James G. Birney (Liberty) – 0
16th	1848	Zachary Taylor (Whig) – 163	Lewis Cass (Democratic) – 127 Martin Van Buren (Free Soil) – 0
17th	1852	Franklin Pierce (Democratic) – 254	Winfield Scott (Whig) – 42 John P. Hale (Free Soil) – 0
18th	1856*	James Buchanan* (Democratic) – 174	John C. Frémont (Republican) – 114 Millard Fillmore (American Party/Whig) – 8
19th	1860*	Abraham Lincoln* (Republican) – 180	John C. Breckinridge (Southern Democratic) – 72 John Bell (Constitutional Union) – 39 Stephen A. Douglas (Northern Democratic) – 12
20th	1864[11]	Abraham Lincoln (National Union) – 212	George B. McClellan (Democratic) – 11
21st	1868	Ulysses S. Grant (Republican) – 214	Horatio Seymour (Democratic) – 80
22nd	1872	Ulysses S. Grant (Republican) – 286	Horace Greeley (Democratic/Liberal Republican) – 0[12] Thomas A. Hendricks (Democratic) – 42 B. Gratz Brown (Democratic/Liberal Republican) – 18 Charles J. Jenkins (Democratic) – 2
23rd	1876*‡	Rutherford B. Hayes* (Republican) – 185	Samuel J. Tilden‡ (Democratic) – 184
24th	1880*	James A. Garfield* (Republican) – 214	Winfield Scott Hancock (Democratic) – 155 James Weaver (Greenback) – 0
25th	1884*	Grover Cleveland* (Democratic) – 219	James G. Blaine (Republican) – 182 John St. John (Prohibition) – 0 Benjamin Butler (Greenback) – 0
26th	1888*†	Benjamin Harrison* (Republican) – 233	Grover Cleveland† (Democratic) – 168 Clinton B. Fisk (Prohibition) – 0 Alson Streeter (Union Labor) – 0
27th	1892*	Grover Cleveland* (Democratic) – 277	Benjamin Harrison (Republican) – 145 James Weaver (Populist) – 22 John Bidwell (Prohibition) – 0
28th	1896	William McKinley (Republican) – 271	William Jennings Bryan (Democratic/Populist) – 176
29th	1900	William McKinley (Republican) – 292	William Jennings Bryan (Democratic) – 155 John Woolley (Prohibition) – 0
30th	1904	Theodore Roosevelt (Republican) – 336	Alton B. Parker (Democratic) – 140 Eugene V. Debs (Socialist) – 0 Silas Swallow (Prohibition) – 0
31st	1908	William Howard Taft (Republican) – 321	William Jennings Bryan (Democratic) – 162 Eugene V. Debs (Socialist) – 0 Eugene Chafin (Prohibition) – 0
32nd	1912*	Woodrow Wilson* (Democratic) – 435	Theodore Roosevelt (Progressive) – 88 William Howard Taft (Republican) – 8 Eugene V. Debs (Socialist) – 0 Eugene Chafin (Prohibition) – 0
33rd	1916*	Woodrow Wilson* (Democratic) – 277	Charles Evans Hughes (Republican) – 254 Allan L. Benson (Socialist) – 0 James Hanly (Prohibition) – 0
34th	1920	Warren G. Harding (Republican) – 404	James M. Cox (Democratic) – 127 Eugene V. Debs (Socialist) – 0
35th	1924	Calvin Coolidge (Republican) – 382	John W. Davis (Democratic) – 136 Robert M. La Follette, Sr. (Progressive) – 13
36th	1928	Herbert Hoover (Republican) – 444	Al Smith (Democratic) – 87
37th	1932	Franklin D. Roosevelt (Democratic) – 472	Herbert Hoover (Republican) – 59 Norman Thomas (Socialist) – 0
38th	1936	Franklin D. Roosevelt (Democratic) – 523	Alf Landon (Republican) – 8 William Lemke (Union) – 0
39th	1940	Franklin D. Roosevelt (Democratic) – 449	Wendell Willkie (Republican) – 82
40th	1944	Franklin D. Roosevelt (Democratic) – 432	Thomas E. Dewey (Republican) – 99
41st	1948*	Harry S. Truman* (Democratic) – 303	Thomas E. Dewey (Republican) – 189 Strom Thurmond (States' Rights Democratic) – 39 Henry A. Wallace (Progressive/Labor) – 0
42nd	1952	Dwight D. Eisenhower (Republican) – 442	Adlai Stevenson (Democratic) – 89
43rd	1956	Dwight D. Eisenhower (Republican) – 457	Adlai Stevenson (Democratic) – 73
44th	1960*	John F. Kennedy* (Democratic) – 303	Richard Nixon (Republican) – 219 Harry F. Byrd (Democratic) – 15[13]
45th	1964	Lyndon B. Johnson (Democratic) – 486	Barry Goldwater (Republican) – 52
46th	1968*	Richard Nixon* (Republican) – 301	Hubert Humphrey (Democratic) – 191 George Wallace (American Independent) – 46
47th	1972	Richard Nixon (Republican) – 520	George McGovern (Democratic) – 17 John G. Schmitz (American) – 0
48th	1976	Jimmy Carter (Democratic) – 297	Gerald Ford (Republican) – 240
49th	1980	Ronald Reagan (Republican) – 489	Jimmy Carter (Democratic) – 49 John B. Anderson (no party) – 0 Ed Clark (Libertarian) – 0
50th	1984	Ronald Reagan (Republican) – 525	Walter Mondale (Democratic) – 13
51st	1988	George H. W. Bush (Republican) – 426	Michael Dukakis (Democratic) – 111
52nd	1992*	Bill Clinton* (Democratic) – 370	George H. W. Bush (Republican) – 168 Ross Perot (no party) – 0
53rd	1996*	Bill Clinton* (Democratic) – 379	Bob Dole (Republican) – 159 Ross Perot (Reform) – 0
54th	2000*†	George W. Bush* (Republican) – 271	Al Gore† (Democratic) – 266 Ralph Nader (Green) – 0
55th	2004	George W. Bush (Republican) – 286	John Kerry (Democratic) – 251
56th	2008	Barack Obama (Democratic) – 365	John McCain (Republican) – 173

Voter turnout

See also: Voter turnout in the United States presidential elections

Voter turnout in the 2004 and 2008 elections showed a noticeable increase over the turnout in 1996 and 2000. While voter turnout has been decreasing, voter registration has been increasing. Registration rates varied from 65% to 70% of the voting age population from the 1960s to the 1980s, and due in part to greater government outreach programs, registration swelled to 75% in 1996 and 2000. Despite greater registration, however, turnout in general has not greatly improved.^[14][15][16] After having hovered between 50 and 60% since 1968 and even dipping under 50% in 1996, in 2008 the turnout came above 60% for the first time in 40 years, with 64.1%.

Statistical forecasts

• PollyVote
• FiveThirtyEight
• Electoral Vote
• Election Projection
• Princeton Election Consortium

See also

• United States presidential primary
• United States presidential nominating convention
• United States presidential election debates
• List of United States presidential elections by Electoral College margin
• American election campaigns in the 19th century
• Elections in the United States

Notes

• Presidents John Tyler, Franklin Pierce, Millard Fillmore, Andrew Johnson, Chester Arthur, Harry Truman and Lyndon Johnson all lost their party's nomination for a second or third term while in office.
• Fillmore was a major candidate, but not as an incumbent.

External links

• The American Presidency Project (UC Santa Barbara: 52,000+ Presidential Documents)
• Electoral College Box Scores
• Teaching about Presidential Elections
• All the maps since 1840 by counties (French language site)
• Dave Leip's Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections
• History of U.S. Presidential Elections: 1789-2004
• Graphic election results from 1952 to 2008 broken down by state (Java Applet)
• A history of the presidency from the point of view of Vermont Discusses history of American presidential elections with two states as opposite "poles", Vermont, and Alabama
• The Living Room Candidate: A Compilation of Presidential Television Ads
• A New Nation Votes: American Election Returns 1787-1825
• How close were Presidential Elections? - Michael Sheppard, Michigan State University
• Better World Links on the U.S. Presidential Election

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