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Image source,Reuters / Getty
Trump and Biden, the two US presidential candidates, will have three televised debates.
The United States, as the largest economic and military power in the world, holds presidential elections every four years to attract the world’s attention, because the president of the United States will have a great influence on the way the world responds to wars, epidemics , climate warming and other problems.
On Tuesday (29), the two US presidential candidates, Biden, the Democratic Party and the current Republican president, Trump, will have their first televised debate. Topics will focus on the new epidemic of the crown, the Supreme Court, the racial protests, the economy and their respective political achievements.
The two candidates will hold a total of three televised debates, and the vice presidential candidate will also launch a televised debate.
Although the number of American viewers watching these television debates is declining, such a heavyweight will continue to attract millions of Americans to watch it.
For many voters, the debate between presidential candidates will help them decide how to vote in the end.
How did the United States conduct such an important election? BBC Chinese ranks ten basic questions and key information about the elections.
1. When is Election Day?
US Presidential Election Day is always set to the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November, so this year’s Election Day is November 3.
A little different from many multi-party democracies in the West, American politics is dominated by the Democratic and Republican parties, so the president of the United States must come from one of them.
The Republican Party is a conservative political party in the United States. This year’s candidate is current President Donald Trump. He will fight for re-election.
The Democratic Party is a liberal political party in the United States. This year’s candidate is Joe Biden. He has served as vice president during President Obama’s eight-year term.
Both Trump and Biden are in their 70s. If Trump is re-elected, he will begin his second term at the age of 74; Biden is 78 years old, and if elected, he will become the oldest president in American history when the first term begins.
2. How is victory or defeat determined?
The candidate with the most public votes may not win the general election. In 2016, although Hillary Clinton received more public votes than Trump, Trump was still elected.
The United States general elections adopt the electoral college (electoral college) system. According to the population, each state has a certain number of electoral votes, totaling 538 votes. Therefore, to win the general election and become president, a candidate must obtain at least 270 electoral votes.
In states that traditionally support a certain political party, election results are easier to predict. Therefore, in the United States general election, candidates will compete in so-called “Battlefield States” or “Swing States.” Only by winning electoral votes in these states can candidates have a better chance of winning.
3. What is the Electoral College?
The president of the United States is not directly elected by one person, one vote, but is chosen by the electoral college of each state based on the results of universal suffrage. Therefore, what determines the result of the general election is not the number of voters the candidate receives, but the number of voters that can be seen.
Although voters see the names of the voters on their ballots, their votes are actually for the voters who have promised to support these candidates.
The “electors” are chosen by the state parties. The number of voters in each state is equal to the number of the United States House of Representatives in that state plus two senators.
The most populous states have the most seats in the House of Representatives, but the least populated states have two seats in the Senate as the most populous states.
4. Who can vote?
Image source,Reuters
An estimated 80 million voters in the 2020 presidential election choose to vote by mail. It is worrying that the postal department can take on such a heavy responsibility.
US citizens who have reached the age of 18 are eligible to vote in the presidential election. However, many states have passed laws that require voters to present identification before voting.
These laws are usually proposed by Republicans, who say that voter identification is to prevent fraud. But Democrats accuse Republicans of oppressing voters in this way, because poor and minority voters generally cannot present identification documents like driver’s licenses.
Different states also have different regulations on the voting rights of prisoners. The vast majority of the prisoners were deprived of their political rights and lost their right to vote at the time of sentencing, but their voting rights were restored once the sentence was completed.
5. How to vote?
The vast majority of voters will go to the polling station to vote on Election Day. But in recent years, the number of people voting by mail has been on the rise. In 2016, 21% of voters voted by mail.
Due to the new corona pneumonia epidemic this year, the number of applicants to send ballots by mail has never been higher. It is predicted that there will be around 80 million people who voted by mail this year, which is double the number in 2016 and the highest in history.
This has caused widespread concern: in addition to ensuring that as many mail-in ballots are delivered to voters on time, it is also necessary to ensure that the ballots are sent to the election counting department before the deadline set by the states. As the United States Postal Service (USPS) was going through a deep financial crisis in assuming this important responsibility, it was implementing a series of measures to cut costs.
6. Do general elections only elect the president?
Although the focus of attention is on the dispute between Trump and Biden, in fact, American voters will also vote for members of Congress this time.
Currently, Democrats have controlled the majority of seats in the House of Representatives, so this time the Democrats will strive to maintain their advantage in the House of Representatives and hope to win more seats in the Senate.
If the Democratic Party has a majority in the US Senate and House of Representatives, even if President Trump wins re-election, his plan will be blocked in Congress.
All 435 seats in the House of Representatives and 35 seats out of 100 seats in the Senate will be elected.
7. When will the results of the elections be known?
It may take several days to count all the votes, but generally in the early hours of the second day of Election Day, it’s basically clear who wins and who loses.
In 2016, Trump delivered a victory speech on the New York stage at three in the morning, and the audience was cheering and thunderous supporters.
Video: The Voting College System in the US Presidential Elections
But the situation this year may be a little different. Officials have warned that the results of this election may take days or even weeks to be announced, as the number of voters sent by mail has skyrocketed this year.
In the 2000 elections, the result could not be announced within a few hours. The United States Supreme Court confirmed the winner just one month after Election Day.
8. How to count the votes sent by mail?
U.S. states have different regulations for voting by mail, including setting the final deadline for voting by mail.
The deadline for voting by mail in Pennsylvania is 8 p.m. local time on the day of the vote, and California complies with the rules as long as it is postmarked on the day of the vote, even if it is mailed one week after the vote. That’s why California always takes a long time to count votes.
The reason why counting votes by mail takes longer also includes that each ballot must have the voter’s signature and must be the same as the signature on the voter’s voter registration card.
Since the number of voters sent by mail is expected to double, just verifying the signature will increase the counting time.
Florida and other states began processing mail-in ballots, verifying signatures, etc., before Election Day and starting counting on Election Day morning.
However, many states and the capital, Washington, DC, have to wait until all polling stations are closed on voting day before they begin counting and casting votes.
9. Does anyone examine the votes?
Another reason this year’s elections may not come out soon is that oversight of the counting process is more important than previous ones.
The accuracy of each ballot can be questioned by “tellers.” These volunteers looked at each ballot behind the cashier to confirm that each was compliant and legal.
All ballots submitted by the “tellers” will be reviewed, invalidated or counted as votes.
Tellers are a legitimate part of democratic elections, but experts warn that this counting function can be manipulated by the campaign team to delay the normal counting of votes.
10. Will the elections trigger legal disputes again?
The different situations and confusions in this election make legal disputes inevitable.
As of 2020, there have been more than 190 election-related legal cases. Issues involved range from identity requirements for mailed ballots to the legality of modifying the voting day of primary elections due to the new corona epidemic. .
No one knows what legal disputes may arise, which can result in delayed voting beforehand or notification of the final result later. However, Richard Hasen, a legal scholar at the University of California, Irvine, believes that the 2020 election will be the most legally contested election in American history.
In the 2000 US election, Gore initially admitted that he had lost the election, and later decided that he should be counted when he lost to his opponent by a small number of votes in Florida, rather than admitting defeat.
In the end, the US Supreme Court ruled on the count before allowing both parties to accept the result.
