Report by Shuchi Giridhar
The presidential election of the United States is going on. It’s been four years since Joe Biden won the elections and began his role as president.
So far, Donald Trump is leading in the Republican party and Joe Biden in the Democratic party.
Tuesday, 5th March, has been declared as ‘Super Tuesday ‘. This is a huge milestone and means that all the initial parts of the elections are over and now, multiple people from multiple states will cast ballots in primary.
Presidential Elections in the US
The president and the vice president are elected together in a presidential election. It is an indirect election, and the winner is determined by the votes cast by electors of the Electoral College.
Voters in each state select a slate of electors from a list of several slates designated by different parties or candidates, and the electors typically promise beforehand that they will vote for the candidates of their party (whose names of the presidential candidates usually appear on the ballot rather than those of the individual electors).
The winner of the election is the candidate with at least 270 Electoral College votes. It is possible for a candidate to win the electoral vote and lose the nationwide or popular vote (receive fewer votes nationwide than the second ranked candidate).
The candidates-
This year the candidates in both parties are –
Republican party
• Donald Trump – 273 delegates
• Nikki Haley – 43 delegates
• Ron DeSantis – 9 delegates
• Vivek Ramasamy – 3 delegates
• Chris Christie – 0 delegates
• Asa Hutchinson- 0 delegates
The party needs 1,215 delegates to win the nomination.
Out of the candidates, Ron DeSantis, Vivek Ramasamy, Chris Christie, and Asa Hutchinson dropped out of the race in the month of January.
The Democratic party
Joe Biden – 206 delegates
Dean Philips – 0 delegates
Marianne Williamson – 0 delegates
The party needs 1,968 delegates to win the nomination. No one has dropped out of the race.
What is Super Tuesday and why is it important ?
Super Tuesday is a big day. It appears on the first Tuesday of March. On this day the primary elections or caucuses are held in many states on the same day. On Super Tuesday, over one third of all delegates to the presidential nominating conventions can be won by the parties. This helps the parties secure a large part of delegates they may require for their final nomination.