It would not be wrong to say that the US elections are probably one of the most confusing electoral processes in the world. As America votes today to choose either Donald Trump or Kamala Harris, there are several questions on how the President of the United States is elected.
Contrary to popular belief, the American voters do not actually elect their President. The people vote for the electors, and these electors then go on to choose the Presidential candidates.
In the US, there are five main steps to elect a President and they are primaries and caucuses, national conventions, election campaigning, general elections and the electoral college.
The District of Colombia and 48 states have a winner-takes-all approach to their electoral college votes. This would mean that whoever, either Kamala Harris or Donald Trump, wins the popular vote by even a single vote, wins all of the state’s electoral votes.
The electoral college comprises a group of delegates from each US state. When the average American votes to elect these delegates in their respective states, they have the final say in selecting the new President.
Each state has a specific number of electoral college votes. Two votes were obtained from the two members representing the state in the US, plus the number of delegates equal to its representation in the House of Representatives. A candidate aspiring to become the President will need an absolute majority of 270 or more votes out of the 538 electoral college votes. Hence, it does not matter how many votes a candidate wins in each state as long as they manage to win more than the next person.
In a nutshell, if one were to put it, the voters merely indicate a preference. The task of actually electing the President falls to these 538 individual electors to the US Electoral College.
It is very possible for the candidate to be the most popular among the voters. This could mean that they still can fail to win enough states to gain a majority electoral votes. However, it has been the practice that the electors almost always vote for the candidate who ends up winning the popular vote.
If the electors vote against the state’s presidential pick, they become faithless. It may be recalled that in 2016, seven electoral votes were cast this way. However, the results were not affected by the faithless electors.
The Electoral College was set up in 1787. The country’s founders saw the system as a compromise between the direct presidential elections with universal adult suffrage and an indirect election by the members of the US Congress. Alexander Hamilton, one of the country’s founding fathers, endorsed the system in 1788, saying that the system guaranteed that a US President would be of characters pre-eminent for ability and virtue and not merely adept with the little arts of popularity.
In the 2016 elections, Donald Trump had nearly 3 million fewer votes than Hillary Clinton. However, he won the elections because the electoral college gave him a majority.
In the 2020 elections, the date of voting was on November 3. The Electoral College formally met and voted on December 14. The winner was announced on January 6 2021.
The pollen this year will be held on November 5 between 7 am and 9 am local time. Since the country has multiple time zones, this would roughly fall between 5.30 pm and 7.30 pm in India. Most polling stations in the US close between 7 pm and 11 pm Eastern Standard Time. This would fall between 5.30 am and 9.30 am in India on November 6.
The results this year are expected to come in soon after the pollen closes at local times in the respective states. The battleground states will begin posting the results as soon as voting concludes at 7 pm EST.
Pennsylvania does not allow mail ballot counting until election day. However, the results are not expected on election night. In the 2020 elections, the state did not have a clear winner for four days after the elections.
In Georgia, the state law requires all the early votes to be counted and reported by 8 pm EST, which is 6.30 am in India on November 6. In North Carolina, the votes are likely to be counted throughout the evening on November 5. The process is likely to be completed only by midnight EST and around 10.30 am India time on November 6. In Nevada, the mail ballots that arrive late are accepted. Hence it is unlikely that the results will be out on the same night.
