Here is an article about our election process written by Frank DeVenuto.<\/p>\n
With a close race in several key states, pending lawsuits, potential voting fraud, and the
\nmedia declaring former Vice President Biden as the new president, many across the nation are
\nconfused about the process for electing the president of the United States.<\/p>\n
The US Constitution,Article 2, section 1, states the president must be a natural born citizen, be at least thirty-five years old, and have been a resident of the United States for at least fourteen years. To appear on state
\nballots, candidates must complete the appropriate paperwork and meet all deadlines, called ballot
\naccess laws, for each individual state, and well before any primaries, caucuses, and the general
\nelection. Individuals become a candidate in one of three ways: 1) Seek and earn a political
\nparty\u2019s nomination via caucuses or primary elections; 2) Run as an independent; or 3) Run as a
\nwrite-in candidate.<\/p>\n
As candidates travel the country speaking, engaging voters, and attempting to garner
\npublic support, there are two basic ways candidates are selected \u2013 via caucus or primary.
\nAlthough not used as often, a caucus is organized by the political parties in which community
\nvoters meet to discuss who is the best candidate. It is different in that caucuses require citizens
\nto attend meetings to participate in the nominating process, and in which voters try to sway other
\nlocal voters. This is one reason the Iowa caucus carries political weight as candidates and the
\nrest of the country see what issues are important to voters. At the end of the caucus, an election
\nis held in which delegates are selected at the county and\/or state level who pledge to support the
\nmajority candidate. Most often used and similar to a general election, a primary is an organized
\nevent held by state governments in which voters cast ballots for the candidate of their choice,
\nwith the winner being whomever receives the majority of votes. Most states have a closed
\nprimary where voters can only cast ballots for the party in which they identify, whereas an open
\nprimary allows voters to cast ballots for any candidate of any party. In a presidential primary,
\nthe winner of each party is given a majority number of the state\u2019s delegates to the
\nnominating convention. Washington and California have a jungle primary or top-two
\nprimary in which a ballot lists all candidates without separation by party. The top two
\nvote recipients run off against each other in the general election, regardless of party
\naffiliation.<\/p>\n
Political parties host a national convention, in the months before a national
\nelection, to select a final presidential candidates. The party presidential nominee is
\ndetermined by the majority vote of delegates attending the convention, and not the
\nindividual ballots of voters. The presidential nominee then selects a running mate to
\nact as vice-president. Delegates are private citizens picked from amongst state
\npolitical party representatives.<\/p>\n
At the general election, voters throughout the country cast their ballots for president and
\nvice-president. When casting their ballots, people are actually voting for a group of people
\ncalled Electors, who are part of the Electoral College, and have already been selected by the
\ncandidate\u2019s political party. If a majority of voters in a state vote for the Republican candidate for
\npresident, the Republican slate of electors is elected. If a majority vote for the Democratic
\ncandidate, the Democratic slate of electors is chosen. The Electoral College, established by
\nArticle II, Section 1, Clause 2 of the US Constitution (and later modified by the 12th and 23rd amendments), is a unique method for indirectly electing the president of the United States.
\nAlthough the phrase “Electoral College” does not appear in the Constitution, it refers to the
\nprocess of electing the President.\u00a0 It says, \u201cState shall appoint, in such Manner as the Legislature
\nthereof may direct, a Number of Electors, equal to the whole Number of Senators and
\nRepresentatives to which the State may be entitled in the Congress: but no Senator or
\nRepresentative, or Person holding an Office of Trust or Profit under the United States, shall be
\nappointed an Elector.\u201d The electoral college was one of the compromises by which the delegates
\nwere able to agree on the document finally produced. Founding Father James Wilson said, \u201cThis
\nsubject has greatly divided the House, and will also divide people out of doors. It is in truth the
\nmost difficult of all on which we have had to decide.\u201d<\/p>\n
Each state is entitled to one presidential elector equivalent to each of its U.S.
\nRepresentatives and US Senators, plus three for the District of Columbia equaling 538 total
\nvotes. A presidential candidate needs a majority, or 270 votes, to win an election. As soon as
\npractical (when election results are certified), the Governor of each state prepares seven
\nCertificates of Ascertainment, one of which goes to the National Archivist. On the first Monday
\nafter the second Wednesday in December, electors meet in their respective States and vote for
\nPresident and Vice President on separate ballots. The electors record their votes on six
\nCertificates of Vote,\u00a0which are paired with the six remaining Certificates of Ascertainment. The
\nelectors sign, seal, and certify six sets of electoral votes. A set of electoral votes consists of one
\nCertificate of Ascertainment and one Certificate of Vote. At least six days before the meeting of
\nelectors, states must make final decisions involving any voting discrepancies and\/appointment of
\nelectors. In 2020, December 8 is the deadline for resolving discrepancies and December 14 is
\nwhen the Electoral College votes.
\nElectoral votes (the Certificates of Vote) must be received by the President of the Senate
\nand the Archivist no later than nine days (December 23) after the meeting of the electors. If votes
\nare lost or delayed, the Archivist may take extraordinary measures to retrieve duplicate originals
\nbut must have transmitted a new set no later than January 3, 2021 when the new Congress
\nassembles. Section 15 of 3 U.S.C. Ch. 1 requires the Senate and House of Representatives to
\nmeet on the sixth day of January following every meeting of the electors to verify the certificates
\nand count the votes of the electors. As President of the Senate, the Vice-President presides over
\nthe counting, announces the results, and then declares which persons have been elected. Any
\nobjections to the electoral votes are made, submitted in writing, and be signed by at least one
\nmember of the House and one Senator. If objections are presented, the House and Senate
\nwithdraw to their respective chambers to consider the\u00a0merits of the objection(s) under procedures
\nset out in Federal law.<\/p>\n
In the event no candidate receives a majority or there is a tie, Article II, Section says,
\n\u201c\u2026if there be more than one who have such Majority, and have an equal Number of Votes, then
\nthe House of Representatives shall immediately chuse by Ballot one of them for President; and if
\nno Person have a Majority, then from the five highest on the List the said House shall in like
\nmanner chuse the President. But in chusing the President, the Votes shall be taken by States, the
\nRepresentation from each State having one Vote\u2026\u201d The 12th amendment changed the number of
\ncandidates on the list from five to three. The U.S. House of Representatives votes to select a
\npresident from the top three vote recipients. Each state only gets one vote regardless of the
\nnumber of U.S. Representatives. The District of Columbia does not vote since it has no voting member in the House of Representatives. In the event, a vice-president does not receive a majority of the electoral votes, the U.S. Senate will cast ballots for the vice-president, with each Senator casting one ballot. As per law, the elected President and Vice-President are sworn in on January 20 in the year following the general election.<\/p>\n
In closing, only the Electoral College can declare via their votes, and read by Congress, the winner of the general election for President and Viced-President.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
With a close race in several key states, pending lawsuits, potential voting fraud, and the media declaring.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3384,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[199,144],"tags":[203,205],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.altonmo.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9696"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.altonmo.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.altonmo.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.altonmo.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.altonmo.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9696"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.altonmo.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9696\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9700,"href":"https:\/\/www.altonmo.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9696\/revisions\/9700"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.altonmo.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3384"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.altonmo.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9696"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.altonmo.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9696"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.altonmo.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9696"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}