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Schule > Englisch > Ausarbeitungen, Interpretationen und Zusammenfassungen > The political process to become the American President

U.S. Presidency

The election of the President is a long and complex political process which begins with the inauguration of the “new” President on January 20th in Washington, D.C..
If a person decides to run for presidency, he or she must have been born in the U.S. and has to be at least 35 years old.
The election campaign for the Primaries is a non-stop act which begins at least one year before Election Day. Before starting their campaign the candidates begin to assemble a staff that will deal with all details of the campaign. During this time the candidates have to travel throughout the whole country, raise funds, give interviews and speeches and participate in debates with other candidates. Raising funds is probably the most important part of a campaign. The candidates are reliant on contributions as they have to pay for their staff members and other costs.
A candidate can take two routes to be elected as presidential candidate at the National Convention of his party. The first route are the Primaries. There are two different kinds of Primaries. In some states they are voted in open Primaries (every citizen can vote), in some states there are closed (only registered party-members can vote) Primaries. Even though these states don’t have many citizens they get a big quantum of media attention which will give the winning candidate a boost for his campaign. Party Conventions are held during the summer before Election Day. During these days the party’s positions on different issues are worked out and the running mate (vice president) will be announced.
The second route are State Conventions. These are meetings of party representatives who select their delegates for the National Convention.
The National Convention is the next step to presidency. It is a meeting of the voted party delegates who adopt the party platform and nominate the candidate for President.
The Presidential elections constitutionally take place on the Tuesday after the first Monday in November.
The method of electing the american President is an indirect one and a majority or winner-takes-it-all vote.
On Election Day the voters don’t cast their votes for the candidate nominated for President, but for electors chosen by the Candidate’s political party. These electors are not legally required to support a particular presidential candidate. Each state has as many electors as it has Senators and Representatives in Congress (Electoral College).
To vote, a citizen must be at least 18 years old to vote. Further on he or she has to be registered before Election Day.
In December the “Electoral College” takes places. At this meeting, which is only a formality, the next President is determined.
On January 20th the new President gets inaugurated in Washington, D.C. and gives his inaugural speech.
All in all, you can see that becoming President of the U.S. is a very complicated process. It takes a lot of time, money and work of all staff members and other volunteers.
Florian Hübner 15.10.2008
Sources: http://teachablemoment.org/high/election2.html.
http://bensguide.gpo.gov/9-12/election/primary.html

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