Every four years, Americans pick someone to be the U.S. President.

Who made up the rules about electing our President?

Most of the rules about electing our President are found in a document called The Constitution. The Constitution was written over 200 years ago by some of the Founding Fathers of our country, like James Madison and Alexander Hamilton. The Constitution has only changed a little since it was written. We change the Constitution by making things called amendments and voting on them, just like we vote for our President.

Can anyone be President?

There are just three rules about who can be President. First, you have to be a natural born citizen or be born in the United States. Second, you have to have lived in the United States for at least 14 years.

The Founding Fathers made these two rules to make sure the President was always American and thought of America first. Remember, when they wrote the Constitution, America had just fought the Revolutionary War to free us from being ruled by the King of England.

And the final rule for being President is that you have to be at least 35 years old. That probably eliminates most of the people reading this, but just wait - you'll be 35 some day!

The Founding Fathers made an age limit because they thought the President had to be old and wise and experienced. A person could become king just by being born into the right family - sometimes kings have ruled countries when they were only 5 or 6 years old! Do you think YOU could do the President's job?
 

How Do We Decide Who Gets To Be President?

Every four years we have an election, when the people of the United States vote for the person they want to be their president for the next four years. The four years that the winner gets to be President are called his term. The last election of a President was in 2000, when George W. Bush was elected. The next election will be in November 2004, when we will elect a new president. President Bush may be elected again, because one of the amendments to the Constitution says you can be elected President two times. Did you know that before that amendment was written, President Franklin Roosevelt served as President from 1932 until 1945, almost 4 whole terms? He was the only person to be President of the United States for more than 8 years.
 

What Is A Candidate, And What Do Candidates Do?

A candidate for president is someone who says they want to be elected and asks people to vote for him or her. There are already many candidates who want to be elected President in November 2004. Once someone announces that they want to be President, they go on a campaign. On a campaign, the candidate travels all over the country and tells the people why they should vote for him or her. The candidates start their campaigns long before election time. During their campaigning, candidates also try to get people to give them money, called contributions, because running for President is VERY expensive.
 

What Is A Political Party?

A political party is not like the birthday parties you go to. In politics, a party is made up of people that usually think alike about different issues, like how much money to spend on education and whether to raise taxes.

There are two major parties in the United States today, the Democrats and the Republicans. President Bush is a Republican. President Clinton, the previous President, was a Democrat. The next president will most likely be either a Democrat or a Republican, but there are also many other parties. Did you know that in the past, presidents have been in other parties, like the Federalist Party, the Democratic-Republican Party and the Whig Party?

A candidate for President usually tells people that he is a member of a party, saying something like, "I'm George W. Bush, and I am a Republican candidate for President." This tells the voters that Mr. Bush shares his stand on issues with most other people in the Republican Party. Early in a campaign, there are a lot of Republican candidates and a lot of Democratic candidates, and as time goes on, some drop out. Eventually, each party makes a formal nomination for ONE candidate to represent their party.
 

How Do People In The Parties Decide From Among The Candidates?

The voters in each party have to decide among the candidates in a series of preliminary elections called caucuses or primaries. Each state holds its own caucus or primary. Iowa usually has the first caucus, and New Hampshire has the first primary. Candidates traditionally spend a lot of time in those two states because they want to have a good start to their campaign. At caucuses and primaries, voters decide which candidate in their party they will support.

Only Democrats can vote in the Democratic caucuses and primaries, and only Republicans can vote in the Republican caucuses and primaries.

Each state then holds a big meeting called a convention, where they elect people called delegates who support their favorite candidates. Then in July or August, each party holds its national convention, where the delegates get together and select one candidate to nominate for president and one to nominate for vice president. These two nominees are called a ticket. For example, President Clinton and Vice President Gore were nominees for President and Vice President and made up the Democratic ticket in 1996.
 

How Are The President and Vice-President Elected?

After the conventions, the nominees usually have debates, where they talk about the issues and tell the voters why they should be elected instead of the other parties' nominees. They continue to travel around the country on the campaign. They make lots of TV and radio commercials. Finally, in early November, Election Day arrives. Everyone goes out to vote. To vote, you only need to be registered. When you register to vote, your name gets put on a list so they can be sure that you only vote one time. Anyone over 18 can be registered to vote and can vote for whatever candidate they want to win.

Unlike in the primaries, Democrats can vote for Republicans, and Republicans can vote for Democrats; the idea is that the best man (or woman) should win.
 

Does The Candidate With The Most Votes Win?

Not always! In fact, a couple of times, the candidate with the most votes did NOT become President. This is because votes are counted by state, and the nominees are trying to win states. Each state is assigned a certain number of electoral votes based on its number of senators and representatives. Each state gets one electoral vote for each senator and one for each representative it has in Congress. Every state has two senators and between 1 and 52 representatives, depending on the state's population. States with small populations, like Alaska and Rhode Island, have only 3 electoral votes. States with big populations, like California, have lots of electoral votes (California has 54!).

Whichever candidate ticket gets the most votes in a state gets all of that state's electoral votes (except in Nebraska and Maine, where electoral votes can be split). That means candidates will spend a lot more time in California than they will in Rhode Island or Alaska!

There are a total of 538 electoral votes (for the 100 senators, 435 representatives, and 3 extras for the District of Columbia - another one of those amendments). A ticket needs a majority of the electoral votes, or 270, to win. After Election Day, each state assigns people called electors who will vote for the ticket that won their state. The electors then get together at a big meeting in the middle of December, called the Electoral College, where they elect the President and Vice President. The new President and Vice President are then sworn in during January and begin their term.