The people of the United States do not directly elect the president, but they do have a role in the process. The president is elected by the Electoral College, which is a group of 538 electors who are chosen by the states and the District of Columbia. Each state has a number of electors equal to its representation in Congress, and the District of Columbia has three electors. The electors meet every four years, after the general election, to cast their votes for president and vice president. The candidate who receives a majority of 270 electoral votes wins the election.
The people of the United States influence the outcome of the Electoral College by voting for their preferred presidential candidate in the general election. The general election is held every four years on the Tuesday after the first Monday in November. When the people vote for a presidential candidate, they are actually voting for a slate of electors who are pledged to that candidate. Most states have a winner-take-all system, which means that the candidate who wins the most popular votes in the state gets all of the state’s electoral votes. However, Maine and Nebraska have a proportional system, which means that the candidate who wins the most popular votes in the state gets two electoral votes, and the candidate who wins the most popular votes in each congressional district gets one electoral vote.
Therefore, the people of the United States do not elect the president directly, but they do have a say in who the electors are and how they vote. The Electoral College is a complex and controversial system that has been in place since the founding of the nation. It has advantages and disadvantages, and it has been the subject of many debates and reforms. You can learn more about the Electoral College from these sources.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Electoral_College, National Archives.
PREs1.org Research team
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