According to our history, the habit of freely choosing our candidate has been practiced by our ancestors and hence “the right to vote” came into being. The election is a process where citizens of the country choose people who will run all offices of the government for a stipulated term. The Electoral Process in the United States was initiated after Congress passed the Electoral Count Act in 1887 after 10 years of the disputed elections in the year 1876. The law looks after the procedure of the Electoral Process in the United States of America. The electoral college was a splendid innovation, there were various methods for counting votes in the United States (For an instant – Runoff voting, Bucklin Voting, Coombs Voting, and Cumulative voting).

Each state has the power to set up its requirements of the election but many states prefer to follow the procedure adopted by the federal to reduce complexity in the process of voting.

The States has various political parties (the Reform Party, the Libertarian Party, the Green Party, the Socialist Party, and others) but there are two vital parties known as the Democratic party and the Republican Party. Political parties are groups of people sharing the same political views. The Democratic is the world’s oldest active political party they stand for racial equity, workplace safety, labor unions among many other things. The Republicans believe in conserving the traditional values and prohibiting the practice of same-sex marriage, marijuana, and abortion. The political parties nominate a candidate from their parties and support them for their campaigns to win the race. Since it is difficult to fund such events smaller parties and individual candidates find it difficult to take their place in political runs.

Qualification

According to the constitution of the US, the candidate may not necessarily belong to a political party but there are other sets of criteria which is a compulsion for everyone running for the office –

i) To run for States house of representatives the candidate:
– Shall be at least 25 years old.
– Shall reside in that particular district and state.

ii) To run for States Senate the candidate:
– Shall be a citizen for at least nine years.
– Shall be at least 30 years old.
– Shall reside in that particular state.

iii) To become President of States the candidate:

– Shall be born citizen of the United States.
– Shall have at least lived in the country for the past 14 years.
– Shall be at least 35 years old.

In case these criteria are not met by the candidate, even if she or he is elected the candidate will not be able to legally serve the country.

Nomination procedure of Candidate

A candidate must show that he or she has minimum public support, the potential candidate must collect a certain number of signatures of voters or a candidate is selected by their political party. In a case where more than one candidate wants to run for the same office. The political party has to vote amongst themselves and decide which candidate will represent before the general election. There are two types of elections before the general election. The Political party may either opt for open voting or a close voting system. In an open voting system, the votes are given by the political party members for the candidate whereas in a closed voting system the votes are given by members of any political party. 

Necessary Qualification to be a voters

To vote for a political party or individual candidate that you support one must comply with the criteria mentioned hereunder:
– The voter should be a citizen of the United States. (In some areas non-resident is allowed to cast vote for local elections only.)
– The voter should at least be 18 years old.
– The voter should be registered with the voting registrar.

Electoral College

In the United States, the general elections are decided by the popular vote but the President and Vice President are elected by the Electoral College. Every state gets electors as per their members of Congress in the house and senate. There is a total of 538 electors including Washington D. C’s three electors. A candidate to win at least needs 270 votes of electors. In case no candidate wins with the majority the vote then goes to the house of representatives and then they select a president from the top three candidates. The senate then decides vice president from the remaining two candidates.

References –

https://www.usa.gov/who-can-vote

https://www.scholastic.com/teachers/articles/teaching-content/electoral-process-united-states/