United States presidential election

What an exciting city! Monuments, museums and so many buildings with Roman columns. Yes, Danni, but this isn't Rome. It's another capital city: Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States of America. Oh, you're feeling the buzz in the air already?

The decisions made here affect the U.S. and the whole world. The leader is called the President. They lead the country as the head of the U.S. government and the commander in chief of the U.S.

military. Oh, Danni, don't tell me you want to be the president of the United States, too? Of course you do. First, you must be elected. So to become a presidential candidate, three requirements listed in the US Constitution, candidates must meet.

First, you must be at least 35 years old. OK, got that. Second, a natural-born citizen born in the U.S. or abroad, as the child of United States citizens. And then you must be a permanent U.S.

resident living full time in the U.S. for at least 14 years. Wow, Danni, are you sure? OK, now the hard work starts. Many people want to be President of the United States, so the competition is tough.

Presidential elections happen every four years. Strangely enough, the job requires no previous governmental work or military experience. Yeah, lucky for you. Moving forward, you will need to join a political party with people who share the same ideas as you about how the government should work. In the U.S.

There can be many political parties, but the same two parties have won every election since 1852 and have all the power. The Democratic Party and the Republican Party. All other parties are simply called third parties and have almost no chance of winning the presidency. Although it is not official, the U.S. is actually a two party system.

To really become the president, you need to join one of those two parties. You better get busy, Danni, because you must campaign throughout the country convincing your party members you are the best candidate. In all the various states and territories, the two parties hold a nominating process for candidates in meetings called caucuses or presidential primary elections. If you survived that round, you and a few other nominees go on to the National Party convention, and the winner at the national convention will choose the vice president running mate, becoming the party's US presidential nominee to compete in the general election for president. Presidential candidates from both parties campaign against each other throughout the country, attempting to win the largest overall voter support in the general elections held in November Election Day.

Citizens in every state across the country vote for one president and one Vice President, but the catch is when people cast their vote, they are actually voting for a group of people known as electors to vote for them. Electors belong to the Electoral College system. Each state gets a certain number of electors based on its population and the total number of representatives in Congress. Each elector casts one electoral vote following the general election. There are a total of five hundred and thirty eight electoral votes.

The candidate that gets more than half of the electoral votes, at least 270, wins the election. In the United States, it is not necessarily the candidate who gets the most votes from the people who wins the election, but the candidate who gets the most electoral votes. The President elect and the Vice President elect take the oath of office and are inaugurated in January the year after. Can you do that, Danni?