INDEPTH: US ELECTION 2004
Election 101
CBC News Online | Updated August 23,
2004
The president of the United States is elected every four
years, and is limited to two four-year terms.
The year 2004 is a presidential election year, but also involves the election of a third of the 100-seat U.S. Senate (two from every state). Senators serve six-year terms. In the 2004 election, 34 Senate seats are up for election.
All 435 seats in the House of Representatives are up for election. Members of the House of Representatives are called congressmen or congresswomen. They serve two-year terms. The Senate and House of Representatives make up what is called Congress.
Republican George W. Bush is contesting his second four-year presidential term.
The president is not elected by popular vote, but by an Electoral College, which has 538 votes. This goes back to the U.S. Constitution of 1787 when the original 13 states did not want a president elected by popular vote. At the time, each state legislature chose delegates to the Electoral College, which elected the president.
In the 2000 election, George W. Bush won fewer popular votes across the U.S. than Democrat Al Gore, but by winning Florida and its Electoral College votes, Bush won the presidency. This election involved the "hanging-chads" controversy, the result of old voting machines that didn't punch out the voting cards properly. For the 2004 elections, new touch-screen voting has been installed.
The American election process officially begins with a complicated combination of primaries and caucuses to select delegates to national conventions that choose the party's presidential candidate.
Primary:
A state-wide election where voters make their choices at the polls. The result of this vote is the selection of delegates to the respective party's national convention. The distribution of delegates to specific candidates varies with some states favouring a "winner-take-all" formula and others awarding candidates on a proportional basis.
Caucus:
Where participants meet to decide which candidate they favour. The actual selection of delegates comes later at county or state conventions.
In July, the Democrats officially chose John Kerry as their candidate for president, with John Edwards as his running mate at the 2004 national convention in Boston. Kerry had the nomination wrapped up by Super Tuesday – Mar. 2, 2004 – after winning all but one of the primaries and caucuses held to that point.
The Republican national convention is in New York City between August 29 and September 2.
After presidential candidates are selected at the national conventions, there are three presidential debates. In 2004, these will be on September 30, October 8 and October 13.
Voting day is Tuesday, Nov. 2.
PARTY STANDINGS IN CONGRESS:
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Senate (100 seats):
- Republicans 51
- Democrats 48
- Independent 1
House of Representatives (435
seats):
- Republicans 229
- Democrats 205
- Independent 1
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But that doesn't end the process. Rewind to the 2000 election
when the importance of the College of Electors became known
to everyone. Al Gore received more votes than George W. Bush.
But Bush, after recounts and court challenges, wound up with
more electoral college votes. In the end, that's what counts.
College of Electors:
A term for the delegates who will officially elect the next president. Each state is allocated two electors plus one more for every member it sends to the U.S. House of Representatives. The latter number varies from state to state because of population size. On election day the electorate will actually vote for a party slate of electors. In most states the ballot will explicitly say that voters are choosing "Electors for" the specific candidates running for president and vice-president. Whichever party slate wins the most popular votes in a state, that party slate becomes that state's electors.
However, there are always exceptions to the rule. Maine
and Nebraska choose two electors by popular vote. The remainder
are chosen by popular vote within each congressional district.
On Dec. 13, the electors will meet in their various state capitals
where they will officially vote for their choice for president
and vice-president. In yet another rule, peculiar only to American
politics, the electors must vote for at least one candidate
who is not from their state. This policy was adopted to prevent
the elections of "favourite sons." It also explains why presidential
hopefuls always chose a running mate from a different state.
Finally, on Jan. 6, 2005, the president of the U.S. Senate opens and reads the vote totals from each state in front of both houses of Congress. The candidate with the most electoral votes, provided it is more than 50 per cent, is declared president.
On Jan. 20, 2005, the president and vice-president are sworn
in by the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court.
In January 2008, it all starts again.
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Voting age population (VAP) in 2000:
205,815,000
Eligible voters (VEP) in 2000:
193,199,543
Voter turnout (% of VEP) in 2000:
54.5%
Numbers of seats up for election (2004):
House: 435 (all of them)
Senate: 34 (of 100)
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