The U.S. Presidential Election Explained

(Illustration by Andy.LIU / Shutterstock.com)

John Portz, a professor of political science at Northeastern University in Boston, spent the four months this year as a Fulbright-Nehru Distinguished Scholar at Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi.

The distinguished scholar fellowships are designed for professors to teach graduate students at the host institution, deliver guest lectures at other higher education institutions, and take part in symposia and conferences. Distinguished scholars also work with faculty members at the host institution on program development and curriculum design.

Portz, too, traveled to institutions across India for a series of lectures on the U.S. electoral system.

Excerpts from an interview.

What were some points you touched on during your lectures?

In my lectures, I talked about how the U.S. presidential elections take place in two stages. The primary elections are in the spring, when the Republican Party and Democratic Party choose their presidential and vice presidential candidates, followed by the presidential election in the fall. I underlined the important role of states in setting voting rules. Some states have early voting, where voters can cast their ballots several days or weeks before Election Day, the first Tuesday in November. Some states have mail-in voting.

What are “battleground” states, and why are they significant?

“Battleground” states, also known as swing states, hold significant importance. Historical trends and polling show the likely winner in most of America’s 50 states. But the battleground states are up for grabs. They could go either way, which is why presidential candidates usually spend most of their campaign time and efforts trying to win over the voters in those states. Five states fall into this group: Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Georgia, and Arizona. Some people include North Carolina and Nevada as well.

Professor John Portz (front row, third from left) after a lecture at Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. (Photograph courtesy John Portz)

In 2016, Donald Trump won five of those states. In 2020, Joe Biden also won five of the battleground states. Often the outcome in a battleground state is decided by a relatively small margin. In the 2020 election, in Arizona, Biden won only 10,457 votes more than Trump.

In the end, Biden won with seven million more “popular” votes than Trump (out of 155 million votes cast). But in the Electoral College, Biden won by a considerably larger margin: 306 votes to Trump’s 232.

Tell us more about the Electoral College, by which the president of the United States is chosen.

The Electoral College today has 538 electors. Each state has a number of electors equal to its number of Senators and Representatives in the U.S. Congress. In all but two states—Nebraska and Maine—it is a winner-take-all system, meaning the candidate who wins the majority of votes in a state takes all that state’s electors. Whichever candidate wins a majority of the Electoral College—270 electors—wins the election and becomes the country’s next president.

Because of the complex math involved, five times in American history, the candidate who won the most popular votes did not win the majority in the Electoral College and lost the election.

American politics is dominated by the Democrats and the Republicans. Do third-party candidates ever have an impact?

Third-party candidates don’t win American presidential elections, but they can make a difference. In the 2000 election, when George W. Bush defeated Al Gore, the election was decided only after a recount of the votes in Florida. Bush’s victory had much to do with the presence of a third-party candidate that year, Ralph Nader, representing the Green Party. He won 97,000 votes in Florida. Bush ended up winning by only 537 votes, out of 5.8 million votes cast in Florida. So, in very close elections, third-party candidates can make a difference.

How important is campaign finance in presidential campaigns?

Political campaigns in America today cost a tremendous amount of money. About $14.4 billion was spent during the 2020 elections, $8.7 billion for the campaigns to win seats in Congress, and $5.7 billion for the presidential election. It was only about half as much in 2016. The main reason for this increase was a 2010 decision by the Supreme Court, popularly called the “Citizens United” decision, which lifted limits on the amount corporations can contribute to election campaigns and allowed them to do it without mandating disclosure.

Burton Bollag is a freelance journalist living in Washington, D.C.

Click here to sign up for the free SPAN newsletter: https://bit.ly/SubscribeSPAN