how the American electoral system works – Corriere.it

How the electoral system works

Americans will also vote to renew all 435 House seats, where the mandate of the deputies lasts two years, and one third of the Senate, or 35 seats, where the mandate lasts six. In addition to the White House, therefore, the majority in Congress is at stake, which can make life easier or more difficult for the next president. For now, Democrats are occupying the House, recaptured in 2018, where they have 232 seats compared to 197 Conservatives. Instead, Republicans have the majority in the Senate, recovered in 2014, with 53 seats against 45 of the opposing party (and 2 independents). At stake are 13 governor’s chairs and thousands of state and local elected positions.

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When you vote

As established by law, voting takes place on the Tuesday following the first Monday in November, but beyond 90 million Americans have already expressed their preference: More than 30 million did it in person, more than 60 million by correspondence despite the battle fought by President Trump who considers it fraudulent. Is already arecord participation, encouraged by the strong political polarization of recent years and, above all, by the pandemic. Suffice it to say that in the 2016 elections a total of 138 million people voted, 55.5% of those who were entitled: it was a historical record, while the largest turnout in modern America was recorded in 2008, when it was a elect Barack Obama. 57.1% of voters (131 million) at the polls.

The United States constituency

By all polls, Biden is expected to get more votes than Trump. But this may not be enough to get you into the White House. Why? Under US law, it is not the citizens who directly elect the president, but 538 voters: number equal to the sum of the senators (100) and deputies (435) that make up the Congress, in addition to the three representatives from the District of Columbia, where the capital Washington is located. In each state, when voting for the president, the citizens elect the large voters: they are the ones who make up the electoral college of the United States, which on Monday, December 14, will vote to formally elect the American president. Within nine days, your votes will be sent to the Senate, where Congress will count them in joint session in early January. Voters vote state by state ed the majority system everywhere except Maine and Nebraska: whoever wins a state, therefore, gets all the electoral votes assigned to him.

To become president, you must earn at least 270.

The number of important voters assigned by each state is established in proportion to the inhabitants, so that the most populated have a greater influence on the outcome of the elections than those with fewer inhabitants. The most populated, California, for example, has 55 major voters that represent its 39 million inhabitants; the eight smallest – like the two Dakotas: the north has 740,000 inhabitants, the south 850,000 – instead elect 3 large voters each, the minimum number, which corresponds to the total number of senators and deputies elected to Congress by the state.

The 2006 case

American democracy got stuck in this mechanism four years ago, when Hillary Clinton lost despite receiving 3 million more votes than Trump– A sign, to critics, that the constituency system is outdated and values ​​the people’s land more highly. California has 69 times the population of Wyoming, but its presidential voting power is only 18 times greater. In other words, The 23 smallest states have a population roughly equivalent to California’s, but collectively they garner 102 large voters to 55 in the Golden State. Additionally, with the exception of Maine and Nebraska, since 1880 all states have adopted a winner-take-all system, assigning the winning candidate, even by a single vote, to all the big voters.

In 2016, Trump became the fifth president in history to win the election despite subsequently losing in the popular vote. John quincy adams in 1828, Rutherford Hayes in 1876, Benjamin Harrison in 1888 and George W. Bush in 2000.

Never in the history of the United States had he won by gathering so many fewer votes than his rival: Clinton triumphed in the largest states by more votes, more than 4 million, but lost, albeit by measure, in the states on the scale. . In Michigan the state margin of 10,704 votes, in Pennsylvania of 44,292 and in Wisconsin of 22,748: if she had won in these states, Clinton would have had 46 more voters, which would have brought her to the White House.

These 77,000 votes therefore had a much greater impact on the elections than the millions of votes cast in California or New York for the Democratic candidate: a short circuit that reopened the debate, and the controversy, about the American electoral system.

Even this year Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania remain among the states to watch out for: they are part of the dozen states on the scale, such as the Florida me l’Ohio – who will decide the outcome of the elections.

When do the results arrive?

In much of the East CoastFrom Maine to Florida voting operations will begin at 6 am, Italian noon, While in the West Coast the seats will open in our 15.

The vote will end with the closure of polling stations in Alaska, when in Italy it will be 7 in the morning.

The first results could arrive around 1 am Italian night, when the first polling stations close in Georgia, Indiana, Kentucky, South Carolina, Vermont and Virginia. Important indications could arrive between 1.30 a.m. and 3 a.m. Italian, when polling stations in North Carolina and Ohio (at 1.30 a.m.), Florida and Pennsylvania (2 a.m.), and eventually Michigan and Minnesota and Texas will close (at the 3).

It is very likely that there will be no reliable data for days, considering the heavy weight of vote by mail and extensions granted by some states to count overdue cards.

Some states will be faster at counting postcards, others slower: This is because some states immediately begin to review, open and count them; others, on the other hand, wait for the day of the vote or a few hours before. Between the states in the balance, Florida, North Carolina and Arizona could give their results for the American night or shortly after, because they have already carried out the so-called pre-processing of the votes by mail.

Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin only began checking postal ballots right before the vote..

In the first two states, full results will only be announced on Thursday 5th or Friday 6th.