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Primaries And Caucuses

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Every four years, on the first Tuesday of November, American citizens are given the chance to cast a vote and elect a president whom will be responsible of representing the United States of America, appointing ambassadors to represent foreign countries, work out treaties and agreements as well as serve as the commander of chief for the armed forces. The election process begins in the spring prior to the year of an election with candidates announcing their intentions to run, this announcement launches their official campaigns of speeches and debates. To run as president, the rules are rather simple: he or she must be a natural-born citizen, at least 35 years of age and been a resident of the United States for at least 14 years. Anyone meeting …show more content…
During this time all candidates are competing with other candidates from the same party in hope to receive the party’s nomination. The candidates goal at this stage is to win representatives who will support the candidate at the national party convention and persuade any other potential voters into voting for them as well, whichever candidate receives the greatest number of nominations of his or her party wins the nomination. Commencing in January states hold primaries and caucuses which is a way for the general public to take part in nominating presidential candidates, though primaries and caucuses run differently they both serve the same purpose. State primaries is more like a general election run by the state and local government, where the voters go to polls to cast their nomination through a secret ballot. At a caucus, local party members gather in private where they divide themselves based on their chosen candidate and then give speeches on the supported candidate in order to persuade members to switch groups. At the end of the meeting the group with the most supporters wins and the candidate advances. Previous to the primaries and caucus, there is the national convention which is where the finalization for president and vice president nominees occurs. The democratic party candidate requires a minimum of 2,383 supporters while the republican party requires only …show more content…
The different party candidates compete against each other through advertising, rallies, speeches and debates. The candidates travel throughout the United States in order to explain their views and gain interest from the general population. In November you can take your vote on who you believe should be the next president, to be an eligible voter you must: be at least 18 years of age and a citizen of the U.S meeting the residency requires of his or her state. Voters will make a trip to their nearest poling place on the first Tuesday. Although voters are submitting their ballot for their ideal president, they are in actuality selecting groups of electors in the electoral college. The electoral College serves as a compromise between citizens and congress, these electors meet to vote for president and vice president and then the congress counts the electoral votes. In order for a candidate to win he or she must receive the majority of the populations vote as well as more than half (270) of the electoral

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