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The current president of the United States, Donald Trump (74) and his challenger Joe Biden (77) of the Democrats, continue fighting for the last votes of the undecided states. But even if this fight were to be decided, the choice is not yet dry for both of us.
Because voters in the United States do not directly elect their president. Rather, it is the Electoral College – 534 voters – that ultimately elects the president in Washington. The larger the population, the more voters a state can send. The candidate who receives the votes of at least 270 voters becomes President of the United States.
Minority presidents are possible
In the vast majority of countries, the “winner takes all” principle applies: the party whose candidate has won the most votes can provide the entire electorate of that country. However, the complicated electoral system has weaknesses and is therefore highly controversial, especially among the American population.
It can lead to the grotesque situation that a candidate could become president of the United States even if, in the most extreme and unlikely case, he could only get 23 percent of the vote nationally. That is, if it obtained 50.01 percent of the votes in the eleven most populous states.
Yet five times in US history, candidates have already been elected president, even though the competitor has won the most votes nationally. Democrats benefited from this three times in the 19th and 20th centuries. In 2000, however, it was Republican George W. Bush (74) who had half a million fewer votes than his Democratic rival Al Gore (72). And Donald Trump won the election in 2016, although he obtained almost three million fewer votes than his rival Hillary Clinton (73) of the Democrats.
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165 electorates chose another candidate
But that’s not all: In 24 of the 50 states, voters are not legally required to vote for the people’s preferred candidate. And even in the 26 states with legal requirements, the electorate is in fact free, as the laws conflict with the constitution and therefore cannot be enforced.
But it rarely happens that voters ignore the mandate of the electorate. Between 1796 and 2016, only 165 voters abstained or chose another candidate.
What was notable, however, was the 2016 presidential election, when ten electorates refused to vote as the will of the people in the respective state would have required. Some refused to vote for Donald Trump. Including firefighter Chris Suprun, who became world famous for this in 2016. But Hillary Clinton was also not chosen by five voters.
For comparison: Trump and Biden are currently fighting fiercely for the six voters of the state of Nevada, as they could be decisive in the election.
However, until now, the rebel electorates have never been able to influence a presidential election. In 2016, however, the Supreme Court expressed concern that electoral voters could ignore the will of the people in an increasingly divided society.
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Unpopular system: little will to reform
Because the system with the electorate obviously has weaknesses, the United States has been calling for its abolition for decades. Instead, citizens should be able to directly elect their president.
But that’s not that easy, says electoral law expert Alexander Keyssar to “Spiegel online.” “One reason is that the Constitution of the United States is difficult to change. We need two-thirds majorities in both houses of Congress and the approval of three-quarters of all states, ”he says.
Also, Keyssar continued, Republicans are more likely to benefit from the system since the 1980s, so they have little ambition to reform it.
In November 2020, the United States will again decide who will be the president of the United States for the next four years. But who can even run for office? What requirements do you have to meet for it? And how does the voting process work?
For example, one of the minimum requirements is 35 years of age, 14 of which must have been in the United States. A candidate must also be a US citizen by birth. However, there are other hurdles waiting for future presidents to be overcome.
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