Initially, the 2024 US election was a re-match of 2020 but it was upended in July when President Joe Biden ended his campaign and endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris for the top post. On July 21, Joe Biden quit the White House race amid growing calls within his Democratic Party for his stepping down. Americans will also be voting for members of Congress, who play a key part in passing laws that can have a profound effect on American life.
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US elections 2024: Your 10-point guideThe big question now is – will America get its first woman president or a second Donald Trump term?
-Americans will vote on November 5 and the winner will serve for a term of four years in the White House, starting in January 2025. Though the President has the power to pass some laws on their laws but he/she must work with Congress to pass legislation.
-Polling time varies from state to state. The first polls close on Election Day at 6 p.m. ET in some counties in Indiana and Kentucky, and the last polls close at 1 a.m. ET Wednesday, November 6, in Alaska, according to a CNN report.
-Each state conducts their election in a slightly different way. Some, like in Washington state, Oregon and Utah, are done almost entirely by mail, a process that stretches for weeks. Every state has some form of early voting available. The process opens to people who can’t get to the polls on Election Day to ensure maximum people cast their ballots.
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-The two main parties- Republicans and Democrats- nominate a presidential candidate by holding a series of votes called state primaries and caucuses. Here people choose who they want to lead the party in a general election.
-The key candidates in the fray are Kamala Harris and Donald Trump, along with some independents running for the US presidential race. The Democrat nominee is Vice President Kamala Harris, who is on the ballot with Minnesota Governor Tim Walz as her vice presidential running mate. The Republican is former President Donald Trump, who is running this year with Sen. JD Vance of Ohio.
-While the Democrats are the liberal political party, the Republicans are the conservative political party in the US. The agenda for Democrats are defined by its push for civil rights, broad social safety net, measures to tackle climate change. Republicans, on the other hand, has stood for lower taxes, gun rights and tighter restrictions on immigration and abortion.
-More than 150 million people are likely to cast ballots for the office of president on or before Election Day. But it’s 538 electors who will choose the president in a process that snakes through December and January.
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-The winner is not the one who gets the most number of votes but both the candidates compete to win contests held across the 50 states. Each state has a certain number of so-called electoral college votes partly based on population. There are a total of 538 up for grabs, and the winner is the candidate that wins 270 or more, according to a BBC report.
-Whichever candidate wins the highest number of votes is awarded all of the state’s electoral college votes. Most states lean heavily towards one party or the other, so the focus is usually on a dozen or so states where either of them could win. These are known as the battleground or swing states.
-Usually the winner is declared on the night of the election but it could take a while. If there are close margins in key states, it could take days to determine a winner.