THE RUN FOR PRESIDENCY

The Run for Presidency

The Run for Presidency

Introduction

The presidential election is an American indirect election for the election of the Electoral College that elects the President of the United States and the Vice-President, a process governed by rules enshrined in the Constitution. The appointment of electors and the selection of candidates are subject to rules established by each of the States which are based on traditions more or less formalized. Since the second half of the twentieth century, this process takes about a year (Bartels, 1985).

Election Process

The electoral process described below is in use in 2009. It is very different from that established by the Constitution for the first election in 1789 and changed from 1804 by the twelfth amendment. However, since then, the changes result from changes in the electoral laws of each state and not a constitutional amendment (Brians, 1996).

Eligibility

Article II of the Constitution and the amendments thereto shall establish the following criteria for eligibility for the President and Vice President:

be aged over 35 years;

be a citizen of the United States at birth (or citizenship on the date of ratification of the Constitution, for the first elections);

have resided in the United States for at least 14 years;

not to run for a third term.

Since the adoption of the XXII Amendment to the Constitution in 1947, a President can do only two terms. If the President took office following the death or resignation of his predecessor and has had more than two years, he can run only once. This amendment follows the death of Franklin Delano Roosevelt during his fourth term. Until then all American presidents had complied with the will of George Washington not to exercise in more than two terms (Arterton, 2000).

Declaration

The applicant must occur in each state where he wants to get the voice of "electors" (see below). In practice, the last elections were played between the two candidates of the Democratic Party and Republican, sometimes with the inclusion of a third independent candidate or belonging to a third party. Generally, there are over a dozen other candidates who are declared in a few states, or even one, and have no chance, even theoretically, to be elected (Huckfeldt & Sprague, 1995).

Declaration of the candidates

Each election year, more than half a dozen candidates want to appear with the label of one of the two major parties, Republican or Democrat. These candidates begin to campaign for their ...