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How does the US election work?
I am Canadian and my husband and I have been trying to figure out how the elections work in the US. In Canada, each of the provinces and territories have their own provincial government who deals with the running of health, education, etc. in that province. We don't elect the Premier (head of the province). Each province has ridings (based on geography and population) and we vote for who we want in that riding and whichever political party (there can be anywhere from 3 to 8) has the most votes has the head of that party lead the province.
The individual cities and townships have their own municipal elections for mayor, reeve, etc.
Then we have our federal government which deals with running the country. It is much like the provincial situation where we do not vote for our Prime Minister but the head of whichever party has the most ridings in the country gets to be Prime Minister. There are no set terms. A party cannot stay in power more than 5 years without another election. Especially in instances where we have a minority government (a party is in power but they have less riding seats than all of the other parties together), it is possible that the government can be brought down by a non-confidence motion - meaning the other parties will not support the government - and an election is called.
Now in the US, I know you vote for the President and Senators and Governors. We are not understanding how this all comes together. I know that Sarah Pallin is the Governor of Alaska and if she does not become VP she still has her job for 2 more years. I believe McCain and Obama are Senators. Are they also running for senate seats in this election?
I'd appreciate if you could expand my education in this area.
The individual cities and townships have their own municipal elections for mayor, reeve, etc.
Then we have our federal government which deals with running the country. It is much like the provincial situation where we do not vote for our Prime Minister but the head of whichever party has the most ridings in the country gets to be Prime Minister. There are no set terms. A party cannot stay in power more than 5 years without another election. Especially in instances where we have a minority government (a party is in power but they have less riding seats than all of the other parties together), it is possible that the government can be brought down by a non-confidence motion - meaning the other parties will not support the government - and an election is called.
Now in the US, I know you vote for the President and Senators and Governors. We are not understanding how this all comes together. I know that Sarah Pallin is the Governor of Alaska and if she does not become VP she still has her job for 2 more years. I believe McCain and Obama are Senators. Are they also running for senate seats in this election?
I'd appreciate if you could expand my education in this area.
Swampy, thank you so much. This helps me to understand what so much of the news is talking about.
Q. know that Sarah Pallin is the Governor of Alaska and if she does not become VP she still has her job for 2 more years.
A. If Sarah Palin is elected VP, she will resign as governor. State law determines what happens next. In most cases, there is a Lt. Governor who becomes Acting Governor. In some states, that person serves until the send of term. In others, there is a special election held. Sometimes it is time dependent -- the special election is held only if there is more than a certain amount of time remaining.
>I believe McCain and Obama are Senators. Are they also running for senate seats in this election?
Not certain (too lazy to look up) when their term expires. However, this is a state law situation. In some states, you are permitted to run for several offices at once. Others do not allow that.
Whoever wins the election will resign as senator. If there is time left in the term, the governor of the state (Arizona for McCain, Illinois for Obama) will appoint a new senator to serve until the end of the term. States have both laws and traditions that determine from what party the appointee is taken.
A. If Sarah Palin is elected VP, she will resign as governor. State law determines what happens next. In most cases, there is a Lt. Governor who becomes Acting Governor. In some states, that person serves until the send of term. In others, there is a special election held. Sometimes it is time dependent -- the special election is held only if there is more than a certain amount of time remaining.
>I believe McCain and Obama are Senators. Are they also running for senate seats in this election?
Not certain (too lazy to look up) when their term expires. However, this is a state law situation. In some states, you are permitted to run for several offices at once. Others do not allow that.
Whoever wins the election will resign as senator. If there is time left in the term, the governor of the state (Arizona for McCain, Illinois for Obama) will appoint a new senator to serve until the end of the term. States have both laws and traditions that determine from what party the appointee is taken.
damn that was good swampy.. i was avoiding that question all evening trying to figure out in my head how to answere it.. well that was a big mistake to start with...lol
Well, there are two sets of questions here. One is how the government separates powers. The other is how election mechanics work.
The constitution defines the relationship between the federal and the state government. Local governments derive their power from state laws.
You might say the US government is a measure of democratic and anti-democratic forces. This reflects a division in the founders over how democratic the government should be. The feeling was that the people's feelings should influence the direction of the government and should be made known but should not necessarily control the government's every action.
The federal government, or as it was called in 1789, the general government, has three branches, two of which are elected. Originally, elections for Congress were divided -- the people voted directly for the House of Representatives, but the state legislatures elected Senators.
The president was elected using a hybrid system. The state legislatures would vote for electors, that would meet, debate the matter, then vote for President. The highest vote getter would be President, the second highest would be Vice-President. There are some additional requirements: the President must be over 35 years old and must be native born, not a naturalized citizen. There is one other important requirement that we overlook these days -- there must be no requirement of any religious practice or any kind of religious oath.
Senators have the longest term of office at 6 years, the President is 4 years, the House of Representatives is 2 years. The plan was to make the House the most democratic and thus the most volatile.
Over the years this system changed a bit. Senators are directly elected by the people, there was a constitutional amendment for that.
The President is still elected by electors. They are appointed by the state legislatures according to the laws of each state. In most (but not all!) states, all electors are chosen from the same party as the candidate who wins a popular vote.
Each state gets electors equal to the number of members in Congress. This means California gets 54 (52 reps + 2 senators) and Alaska gets 3 (1 rep + 2 senators).
So Americans don't vote for their President, they instruct their state legislature. This is one of the points the Supreme Court made in Bush v Gore.
As Swampy said earlier, most states appoint all their electors from the same party. So if in California Obama gets 51% and McCain gets 49% of the popular vote, all 54 of California's electors are chosen from the Democratic party.
So who are these electors? Well, they are party loyalists, chosen as strong supporters of their candidate by the parties.
The constitution defines the relationship between the federal and the state government. Local governments derive their power from state laws.
You might say the US government is a measure of democratic and anti-democratic forces. This reflects a division in the founders over how democratic the government should be. The feeling was that the people's feelings should influence the direction of the government and should be made known but should not necessarily control the government's every action.
The federal government, or as it was called in 1789, the general government, has three branches, two of which are elected. Originally, elections for Congress were divided -- the people voted directly for the House of Representatives, but the state legislatures elected Senators.
The president was elected using a hybrid system. The state legislatures would vote for electors, that would meet, debate the matter, then vote for President. The highest vote getter would be President, the second highest would be Vice-President. There are some additional requirements: the President must be over 35 years old and must be native born, not a naturalized citizen. There is one other important requirement that we overlook these days -- there must be no requirement of any religious practice or any kind of religious oath.
Senators have the longest term of office at 6 years, the President is 4 years, the House of Representatives is 2 years. The plan was to make the House the most democratic and thus the most volatile.
Over the years this system changed a bit. Senators are directly elected by the people, there was a constitutional amendment for that.
The President is still elected by electors. They are appointed by the state legislatures according to the laws of each state. In most (but not all!) states, all electors are chosen from the same party as the candidate who wins a popular vote.
Each state gets electors equal to the number of members in Congress. This means California gets 54 (52 reps + 2 senators) and Alaska gets 3 (1 rep + 2 senators).
So Americans don't vote for their President, they instruct their state legislature. This is one of the points the Supreme Court made in Bush v Gore.
As Swampy said earlier, most states appoint all their electors from the same party. So if in California Obama gets 51% and McCain gets 49% of the popular vote, all 54 of California's electors are chosen from the Democratic party.
So who are these electors? Well, they are party loyalists, chosen as strong supporters of their candidate by the parties.
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