Roads to the White House
The chief road to the White House is the presidential election held every four years. However, a person may become President of the United States several other ways as well.
The presidential election
Certain people frequently become leading candidates for the presidency because of their experience. They include the Vice President of the United States and governors of such large states as California and New York. Fourteen Vice Presidents and 16 governors have become President.
Most top presidential candidates must first compete against fellow political party members to win the party’s presidential nomination. The Democratic and Republican parties are the two main political parties in the United States. Each holds a national convention to nominate its presidential candidate. The conventions take place a few months before the presidential election.
The Democratic and Republican conventions are lively spectacles. Millions of Americans watch them on television. Delegates wave banners and cheer wildly to support their choice for President.
After the conventions, the presidential nominees campaign across the nation. Candidates for President face many challenges. They must raise millions of dollars for campaign expenses, attract many volunteers, and gain the support of voters throughout the country. The campaign continues until Election Day, the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November.
On Election Day, voters in each state and the District of Columbia mark a ballot for President and Vice President. This balloting is called the popular vote. The popular vote does not directly decide the winner of the election. Instead, it determines the delegates who will represent each state and the District of Columbia in the Electoral College. These delegates officially elect the President and Vice President.
The Electoral College has 538 delegates, each of whom casts one electoral vote. To be elected President, a candidate must win a majority, or 270, of the electoral votes. Each state has as many electoral votes as the total of its representatives and senators in Congress. The District of Columbia has three electoral votes.
The Electoral College voting takes place in the December following the presidential election. The results are announced in January. But the public usually finds out who the President will be a few hours after polls close on Election Day. This is because the candidate who gets the most popular votes in a state will receive by custom or law all the state’s electoral votes. Thus, the press can forecast the winner.
The winner of the nationwide popular vote nearly always receives a majority of the electoral votes and becomes President. But the Electoral College has elected two Presidents who lost the popular vote. These Presidents were Rutherford B. Hayes in 1876 and Benjamin Harrison in 1888. A third President, John Quincy Adams, also lost the popular vote. But Adams was elected President by the House of Representatives after no candidate had received a majority of the electoral votes in the election of 1824. Ronald Reagan received the greatest number of electoral votes of any President—525 in 1984.
The inauguration is the ceremony of installing the new or reelected President in office. It is held at noon on January 20 after the election. Up to 100,000 spectators attend the inauguration, which usually takes place outside the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C. Millions of other Americans see the event on television.
The highlight occurs when the new President takes the oath of office from the chief justice of the United States. With right hand raised and left hand on an open Bible, the new President says:
“I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.”
Other roads to the White House
A person may become President in other ways besides winning the presidential election. These procedures are established by Article II of the Constitution; the 12th and 20th amendments; and the Presidential Succession Act.
Article II provides that the Vice President becomes President whenever the President dies, resigns, is removed from office, or cannot fulfill the duties of the presidency. Nine Vice Presidents became President by filling a vacancy. One of them, Gerald R. Ford, followed an unusual route to the White House. President Richard M. Nixon nominated him to succeed Spiro T. Agnew, who had resigned as Vice President in 1973. In 1974, Nixon resigned as President, and Ford succeeded him. Ford was the only President who was not elected to either the vice presidency or the presidency.
The 12th Amendment permits Congress to act if no candidate for President wins a majority of the electoral votes. Then, the House of Representatives chooses the President. Each state delegation casts one vote. The House has elected two Presidents, Thomas Jefferson in 1801 and John Quincy Adams in 1825.
The 20th Amendment allows leaders of the party of the popular-vote winner to select a new presidential candidate if the winner dies before the Electoral College meets. The college would then vote on that selection. If the popular-vote winner dies after the college meets but before the inauguration, the winning candidate for Vice President becomes President. Neither of these provisions has ever been applied.
The Presidential Succession Act permits other high government officials to become President if vacancies exist in both the presidency and the vice presidency. Next in line is the speaker of the House. Then comes the president pro tempore (temporary president) of the Senate, usually the majority party member who has served the longest in the Senate. Next are members of the important presidential advisory group that is known as the Cabinet, with the secretary of state first. The Succession Act has never been applied.