[🇺🇸] USA Election 2024

[Ghazi52]

How does the US presidential election work?​

The winner is not the person who gets the most votes across the country. Instead, both 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.

All but two states have a winner-takes-all rule, so 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.

It is possible for a candidate to win the most votes nationally - like Hillary Clinton did in 2016 - but still be defeated by the electoral college.

Who can vote in the US presidential election?​

Most US citizens who are aged 18 or over are eligible to vote in the presidential election.

Every state except North Dakota requires people to register before they can vote.

Each state has its own voter registration process and deadline.

US citizens who live abroad can register to vote and request an absentee postal ballot by completing the Federal Post Card Application (FCPA).

Who else is being elected in November?​

All of the attention will be on who wins the presidency, but voters will also be choosing new members of Congress - where laws are passed - when they fill in their ballots.

Congress consists of the House of Representatives, where all 435 seats are up for election, and the Senate, where 34 seats are being contested.

Republicans currently control the House, which initiates spending plans. Democrats are in charge of the Senate, which votes on key appointments in government.

These two chambers pass laws and can act as a check on White House plans if the controlling party in either chamber disagrees with the president.

When will we know who has won the election?​

Usually the winner is declared on the night of the election, but in 2020 it took a few days to count all the votes.

The period after the election is know as the transition, if there is a change of president.

This gives the new administration time to appoint cabinet ministers and make plans for the new term.

The president is officially sworn into office in January in a ceremony known as the inauguration, held on the steps of the Capitol building in Washington DC.

 

[Ghazi52]

Jan. 6 thrust back into the spotlight in final election days​

Analysis by Stephen Collinson, CNN
October 4, 2024

Donald Trump’s attempt to unravel American democracy to stay in power four years ago is suddenly back at the epicenter of another election — weeks before the ex-president could pull off a stunning White House comeback.

Special counsel Jack Smith and former Rep. Liz Cheney have thrust the issue of the GOP nominee’s false 2020 fraud claims into the endgame of Trump’s neck-and-neck showdown with Democratic nominee Kamala Harris, while reviving memories of a day that will stain American history.

Appearing with Harris in Wisconsin on Thursday, Cheney presented herself as part of a bipartisan movement to block Trump from the White House. But four years on, the mob assault by Trump supporters on the US Capitol, the ex-president’s attempt to subvert a free and fair vote, and his incessant efforts to fracture trust in the US democratic system may not impede his return to power.

This is a reality that reflects both the divided state of the nation and the GOP’s willingness to prioritize power. But most of all, it’s a testimony to the often-malevolent magnetism that has made Trump a historic and enduring political figure.

Cheney, a hardline conservative, appeared with the vice president in the critical battleground to urge independents and Trump-wary Republicans to vote for the Democrat despite their sharp differences on policy.

“The most conservative of conservative values is fidelity to our Constitution,” Cheney said in Ripon, Wisconsin. “As we meet here today, our republic faces a threat unlike any we have faced before.” She added: “In this election, putting patriotism ahead of partisanship is not an aspiration – it is our duty.”

“What January 6 shows us is that there is not an ounce, not an ounce of compassion in Donald Trump. He is petty, he is vindictive, and he is cruel, and Donald Trump is not fit to lead this good and great nation.”

It was a remarkable scene, which was only made possible by the political earthquake unleashed by Trump’s conduct four years ago. A sign of how much things have changed in American politics: Cheney’s father, former vice president Dick Cheney — who was reviled by Democrats, especially over the Iraq War — has also endorsed Harris. His daughter declared: “I have never voted for a Democrat, but this year I am proudly casting my vote for Vice President Kamala Harris.”

The former Wyoming congresswoman lost her leadership position in the House GOP and eventually her seat in a landslide to a primary challenger, after standing up to Trump’s attempt to defy the will of voters in 2020. And while she was still in the House, she helped lead a bipartisan special committee that recommended criminal charges for the twice-impeached ex-president over the January 6, 2021, riot. In Wisconsin, a state that could be decided by narrow margins next month, Cheney could have a big impact if she’s able to move even a few hundred votes.

 

[Ghazi52]

Next week, Cheney and former Trump White House aides Alyssa Farah Griffin, Cassidy Hutchinson and Sarah Matthews will make the case against Trump in a fireside chat in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, CNN has exclusively learned.

Harris on Thursday praised Cheney’s courage — and vowed, “Anyone who has called for, I quote, the termination of the Constitution of the United States, as Donald Trump has, must never again stand, never again stand behind the seal of the president of the United States.”

The ex-president responded to Cheney’s appearance with a post on his Truth Social network that was filled with personal insults. But Trump’s comments also underscored the populist transformation of the Republican Party that he wrought after more than a decade of draining overseas wars that put a heavy burden on service personnel from many of the heartland states where he draws his strongest support. The Republican nominee blasted Cheney as a war hawk and slammed her father as the leader of “our ridiculous journey into the Middle East, where Trillions of Dollars were spent, millions of people were killed - and for what? Nothing!”

How relatively small numbers of up-for-grabs swing state voters process the issues behind the comments by Cheney and Trump — and weigh them in relation to other top concerns like the economy and high grocery prices — could factor into the wider question of who wins the election

 

[Ghazi52]

Cheney’s appearance came after Smith was back in the spotlight Wednesday, with an unsealed court filing offering the most detailed view yet of his federal election interference case against Trump, who has thwarted attempts to bring him to trial before the election.

The special counsel alleged that Trump told family members, “It doesn’t matter if you won or lost the election. You still have to fight like hell.” The filing represents an attempt by Smith to save a case that was seriously damaged by the conservative majority on the Supreme Court, which granted Trump and other ex-presidents wide immunity for acts in office.

 

[Ghazi52]

Uncertain political fallout from the new focus on January 6​

New focus on Trump’s refusal to accept the result of the last election and the January 6 attack on the Capitol might seem like a political disaster for the ex-president. But it’s a mark of Trump’s success in rewriting history that this is not necessarily an election-defining issue.

When Trump left Washington in January 2021, without attending Joe Biden’s inauguration and with the city divided by iron security fences, it would have been absurd to think that he could have a strong chance of returning to power in a non-consecutive second term.

His prospects next month show that while he horrifies many Americans, his conduct after the last election is not seen as disqualifying by millions of others. Trump has countered claims by opponents that he represents a grave peril to the Constitution by arguing that Biden and Harris are the real threat and has blamed their rhetoric for two assassination attempts against him. “I probably took a bullet to the head because of the things that they say about me,” Trump said at his debate with Harris last month. “They talk about democracy. I’m a threat to democracy. They’re the threat to democracy.”

Trump’s hold on the Republican base has also allowed him to browbeat most party leaders into supporting him and joining his effort to whitewash his conduct after the last election. He’s also again raising doubts about the integrity of the election system as early voting begins this year to hedge against another possible defeat.