Elections, Explained

The US presidential race

1. Primaries and caucuses: each party picks its candidate, state by state.
2. Conventions: each party officially names its nominee.
3. Debates and campaigning.
4. Election Day: the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November, every four years.

The Electoral College

Americans don’t elect the president directly. Each state gets electors equal to its number of senators plus House members. There are 538 in total, and you need 270 to win.

Most states give all their electors to whoever wins that state. That’s why a few close swing states get most of the attention, and why a candidate can win the presidency while losing the national popular vote. That has happened twice since 2000 (in 2000 and 2016).

Midterms

Two years into a president’s term, every House seat and about a third of the Senate are up for election. These midterms decide which party controls Congress, which shapes what the president can get done.

Other countries do it differently

• Parliamentary systems (UK, India, Canada, Japan): people vote for members of parliament. The leader of the party that can control parliament becomes prime minister. There’s no separate vote for the top job.
• First past the post: whoever gets the most votes in an area wins it (US, UK, India).
• Proportional representation: parties get seats based on their share of the vote (much of Europe), which often means coalitions.
• India runs the world’s biggest election, with almost a billion registered voters.