US Elections 2024: How does America choose its President?

For those accustomed to Indias firstpastthepost general elections the US Presidential Election is a confounding system that includes primaries caucuses an electoral college the early voting option the battleground states and the no federal Election CommissionHowever there is a fixed date for the US Elections 2024 the first Tuesday after the first Monday of November every fourth year news agency PTI reported And the race most likely has only two serious contenders one from the Democratic Party and the other from the Republican Party This time VicePresident Kamala Harris Democratic Party will contest against former President Donald Trump Republican PartyThe voters however dont just pick the candidate they want as the president The ballot paper could include options to pick representatives to the state legislatures and local bodies and voters could also be asked to participate in referendums on issues before the lawmakers in that particular stateCiting the examples of some states PTI said legalising recreational marijuana is on the ballot papers in Florida North Dakota and South Dakota while Colorado wants to know if proceeds from a sales tax on guns should be spent to help victims of crimeThe US Elections are conducted by the state administrations conduct elections owing to which the processes vary The opening and closing times at polling centres can also be different from state to state Apart from this depending on the state people have mailed in their ballot papers or used drop boxes to cast their vote days before November 5According to PTI in many states a driving licence is about the only document the voter needs to produce before casting the ballot Trump has called for a mandatory election ID card for all votersCandidate who secures a minimum of 270 votes becomes the next US PresidentThe process for the US Elections 2024 begins months ahead of the final polling date Parties pick their candidates through primaries and caucuses held across statesTechnically voters do not choose the candidate they want to be the next president in US Elections 2024 They vote for presidential electors mdash a body of eminent people chosen earlier from each state Broadly each state gets a certain number of electors based on its representation in the US House and SenateHowever it is not proportional representation If Harris wins the popular vote in battleground or swing state Pennsylvania she wins the votes of all 19 electors from the state even if there is space for some legalistic quibbling later onThe presidential electors from Pennsylvania form part of the 538member electoral college drawn from all states The candidate who wins 270 or more votes nationwide is the next PresidentUsually the candidate who wins the electoral college vote has also won the majority of the popular vote However there have been exceptions twice in the past six US presidential elections the latest being in 2016 when Hillary Clinton who had won the nationwide popular vote was defeated by TrumpUnlike the Indian electoral system there is no cooling off period between the campaigning polling and the countingSeveral hours before centres opened for polling across the country the tiny New Hampshire resort town of Dixville Notch finished with its own inperson voting following a tradition that allows it to be the firstAt the stroke of midnight its six voters began casting their ballots Fifteen minutes later the vote count was complete a 33 split between Harris and TrumpWithin a couple of hours of polls closing in most states counting trends could be available from at least some of the battleground states These swing state which can turn an election are Arizona Georgia Michigan Nevada North Carolina Pennsylvania and WisconsinWith PTI inputs