Brief View of US Election
The US president has a huge influence on people's lives both at home and abroad, so when the next election is held on 3 November, the outcome will matter to everyone in the US and also many in other countries. The US president is indirectly elected to a 4-year term by the people through the Electoral College.
Eligibility
If you’re a US citizen and you’re 18 or over, you should be eligible to vote in the presidential election, which takes place every four years. Since 1789, 44 men have served as president. The first president was George Washington.
The US president has a huge influence on people's lives both at home and abroad, so when the next election is held on 3 November, the outcome will matter to everyone in the US and also many in other countries. The US president is indirectly elected to a 4-year term by the people through the Electoral College.
Eligibility
If you’re a US citizen and you’re 18 or over, you should be eligible to vote in the presidential election, which takes place every four years. Since 1789, 44 men have served as president. The first president was George Washington.
Two Parties
The US political system is dominated by just two parties, so the president always belongs to one of them.
The Republicans are the conservative political party in the US and their candidate in the 2020 election was President Donald Trump, who is hoping to secure another four years in power. In recent years, it has stood for lower taxes, free market capitalism, restrictions on immigration, increased military spending, gun rights, restrictions on abortion, deregulation and restrictions on labor unions. Support for the party tends to be stronger in more rural parts of America. The party is also known as the GOP, or the Grand Old Party.
List of US Presidents
How is the winner decided?
Both candidates compete to win electoral college votes. Each state gets a certain number of electoral college votes partly based on its population and there is a total of 538 up for grabs, so the winner is the candidate that wins 270 or more. This means voters decide state-level contests rather than the national one, which is why it’s possible for a candidate to win the most votes nationally (popular vote) - like Hillary Clinton did in 2016 - but still be defeated by the electoral college (electoral vote).
All but two minor states have a winner-takes-all rule, so whichever candidate wins the highest number of votes is awarded all of the state’s electoral college votes.
Most states lean heavily towards one party or the other, so the focus is usually on a dozen or so states where either of them could win. These are known as the battleground states or swing states.
Voters also choose new members of Congress when they fill in their ballots. All 435 seats in the House of Representatives (allocated by population, 2-year term) are up for election this year, while 33 of 100 Senate seats (2 senators per state, 6-year term) are also up for grabs.
The Battle-ground States in 2020 Election
