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Voting for the presidential election is going to take place in America today i.e. on Tuesday. Donald Trump and Kamala Harris are contesting from America's two largest political parties, Republican Party and Democratic Party. There will be a close contest between the two candidates. The results of the US elections may be shocking.
What is the time to vote in the US presidential election?
Voting for the US presidential election will begin in various states between 7 am and 9 am local time. This time will be from 4:30 pm to 9:30 pm Indian time. Talking about the last time of voting, most of the polling centers can remain open from 6 pm till late night. That means, by the time voting ends in America, the second day will begin in India. This means that voting in America can end at 4.30 am Indian time on Wednesday. This time may be longer in many states because US states are divided into many different time zones.
When will the results of the US presidential election come?
Counting of votes will start as soon as the voting for the presidential elections in America ends. After the votes are counted, the winner of the popular vote is declared, but not every time the candidate receiving the most popular votes is actually the winner of the presidency. Because in America the President is actually elected not by popular vote but by the Electoral College. Apart from this, sometimes it may also happen that a projected winner is being declared in one state and voting is going on in another state.
Sometimes it takes a day or two to get accurate results. After the voter elections in December, all election certificates will be submitted to the Senate President by December 25. After this, the electoral votes will be counted in the joint session of Congress on January 6, 2025, on the same day Vice President Kamala Harris will announce the winner in the House.
What is the Electoral College?
The Electoral College plays the most important role in the American presidential election. The Electoral College is the number of electors assigned to each US state. Any candidate will have to win 270 of the 538 electoral colleges to win the election. Each state gets electors according to the number of representatives it has in the US House of Representatives and the US Senate.
Currently the maximum number of electors in the state of California is 55, while the minimum number of electors is 3, which is in 6 states of America including Wyoming. However, the 7 swing states are the most important because unlike most states, their stance is not clear in advance and that is why these swing states are considered to be major 'battlefields'.
How are voters selected?
Even before voting in America, political parties in each state select a group of voters, often these voters are party officials or supporters. When American voters are voting for their favorite candidate in the presidential election, they are actually choosing the electors of their state. In most US states, the presidential candidate receiving the most electoral votes is elected. Even if the candidate wins by a very small margin. Only in the states of Maine and Nebraska is the number of electors proportional to the number of votes a candidate receives.
What are swing states and why are they important?
Voting patterns in most US states are predictable, meaning that most states' leanings towards the Republican and Democratic parties can be known in advance. After voting, the results of these states are declared first. But it may take time for election results to be declared in some important states. These states are also called swing states or purple states.
There are 7 important states in the 2024 presidential election – Pennsylvania (19 Electoral College), North Carolina (16 Electoral College), Georgia (16 Electoral College), Michigan (15 Electoral College), Arizona (11 Electoral College), Wisconsin (10) ). Electoral College) and Nevada (6 Electoral Colleges).
These 7 states alone have a total of 93 Electoral College votes. At a time when elections are considered very difficult, the results of swing states prove to be very important. That's why Harris and Trump camped in swing states in the last leg of the campaign.
Can the presidential election be dragged out?
At present, it seems extremely impossible in America that any third party candidate other than Republican or Democrat can compete and the electoral contest between the two candidates is equal. But this time the election contest is very tough, so this possibility cannot be ruled out.
What will happen if the result is a draw?
If no candidate receives 270 Electoral College votes and the contest is tied, the lower house of the US Parliament, the House of Representatives, decides the president. According to the US Constitution, it is called contingent election. The lower house consists of a total of 435 representatives, who have to select the winner from among the top three candidates for the presidency. But here the method of voting is slightly different, each state delegation is entitled to one vote, so in such a situation, more than half of the 50 states i.e. 26 votes will be required to elect the President. At the same time, the responsibility of selecting the Vice President lies with the Senate, the upper house of the Parliament. There are 100 senators in it.
How many presidential candidates are there in America?
In the US presidential elections, Vice President Kamala Harris is the presidential candidate from the ruling party, while former President Donald Trump is contesting from the main opposition Republican Party. Apart from these two main rivals, three candidates are also trying their luck. The biggest name among these is that of the 74-year-old female candidate of the Green Party, Jill Stein, who has contested the presidential elections twice before. The Liberal Party has fielded the youngest candidate, Chase Oliver. Oliver is one of the political activists opposing the Iraq War.
Apart from this, 71 year old independent candidate Colonel West is also in the race for the presidency. Colonel West has promised that if he wins the election, he will press Israel for a permanent ceasefire in Gaza and the complete withdrawal of Israeli forces from the Palestinian territories.
