From primaries to polls, all about the US Presidential elections

Although there are few constitutional requirements for the office of American presidency-candidate has to be a natural born citizen, at least 35 years of age and resident of the United States for at least fourteen years, but there are many informal barriers. Every American president since 1933 has been a governor, senator or five star military general. No women had yet been elected and Barack Obama was the only African American to rise to that level. Also the race to presidency starts with getting the party’s nomination and building massive campaign to get the desired space in the national media. How do the parties select their candidates? The official nomination of candidates takes place in the national convention of both the Republican and the Democratic Parties. This year’s national convention is scheduled to happen in July. These conventions are attended by the party’s delegates who vote to elect the candidate. At present the Democratic Party has 4,750 delegates while there are 2,551 Republican delegates. Candidates must get the majority of votes to become party’s candidate to run for president. medium74240257 How are these delegates selected? The delegates are elected during the presidential primaries. There are two categories of delegates in the Democratic Party — pledged delegates and super or unpledged delegates. Pledged delegates are elected with the understanding they will support a particular candidate during the party’s national convention although it is not mandatory. Apart from 3,979 pledged delegates there are 771 Super-delegates which are usually Democratic members of the Congress, governors, former presidents and other high ranking officials. They are not required to indicate preference for any candidate. In the Democratic party, proportional representation is used to determine the allocation of delegates to candidates. For instance, a candidate winning 60% of the state’s vote will win 60% of the delegates. There is however a cut-off of 15% votes that the candidate must get to be awarded any delegate. Of the total 2,551 Republican delegates, most are pledged delegates. The process of awarding delegates is slightly different when compared to the Democrats. In some states, delegates are awarded by using winner take all system while others use proportional representation. medium74241154What is the difference between caucus and primaries?Primaries are funded by state governments and people vote in similar way as they vote in general election that follows the nomination process. Caucus on the other hand is a meeting of supporters or members of the parties to elect the candidate. Over the years American states are moving towards primaries. Going for caucus or primary depends on the state units of the parties. As primaries are funded by public money hence the voting rules of the state has to be followed like who can be the elector and so on. In case a party prefers different date- earlier date or more influential date than decided by the state government then it has to go the caucus way and fund the whole process from its own money. Depending on the state primary could be closed- where only party members can vote or open where non-affiliated voters can also participate. If a party in an open primary state wants only party member to vote then it has to elect by caucus.boxcontent medium74248413 Why a Republican elephant and Democratic donkey?The Democratic Party’s donkey can be traced to the 1828 presidential campaign of Andrew Jackson. During the campaign, opponents of Jackson called him a jackass. Instead of rejecting the label, he included an image of the animal in his campaign posters. Jackson went on to defeat incumbent John Quincy Adams and became America's first Democratic president.The Republican elephant was first used by an Illinois newspaper during Abraham Lincoln's campaign in 1860. The symbol was however made popular by Thomas Nast, a Republican, who drew it in a cartoon in a magazine in 1874.