The Electoral College, swing states, the “winner-take-all” rule, and early voting... In the run-up to the US presidential election on November 5, here's everything you need to know about how the next president will be elected.
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00:00The future is always worth fighting for, and that's the fight we are in right now, a fight for America's future.
00:10Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump are hurtling towards their November 5th showdown,
00:16in one of the closest elections in modern American history.
00:19But how does the country decide who gets to replace President Joe Biden?
00:23Here is everything you need to know about how the results of the election will be determined.
00:27November 5th, 2024 will be called Liberation Day in America. We're going to be liberated.
00:42The United States does not vote directly for a presidential candidate.
00:46Instead, Americans vote for one of 538 members of the Electoral College who designate the winner on their behalf.
00:52Each state is given a certain number of electors based on population.
00:56California, the most populous state, has 54.
00:59And Wyoming, the least populous state, has just three.
01:02Candidates need at least 270 of the 538 Electoral College votes to win.
01:13States have a winner-take-all system that awards all of the electoral votes to whoever wins the popular vote in each state,
01:19aside from two exceptions, Nebraska and Maine, which split their electoral votes.
01:25Under the winner-take-all system, a candidate can be chosen by the Electoral College,
01:29even if they receive fewer popular votes at the national level.
01:33This is what happened in the 2016 election, when Trump won against Hillary Clinton,
01:37even though she received nearly 3 million more votes nationally.
01:41I know many of you are deeply disappointed about the results of the election.
01:49Since most states usually lean either Democratic or Republican,
01:53the election tends to be decided by hotly contested swing states that have a history of alternating between the two parties.
01:59This year, there are seven such battlegrounds.
02:02Pennsylvania, Georgia, Michigan, Wisconsin, Nevada, Arizona, and North Carolina.
02:09Swing states account for 93, or nearly one-fifth of the total number of Electoral College votes.
02:14In a razor-thin election, just a handful of votes in any of those states could decide the outcome.
02:23On November 5th, when polling stations open, many voters will have already cast their ballot.
02:28Both Republicans and Democrats have been encouraged to vote early,
02:32in an aim to improve turnout and reduce crowds on the big day.
02:35In 2020, more than 100 million Americans cast their ballot in advance.
02:40Since his 2020 defeat, Donald Trump has launched an assault on the credibility of mail-in voting,
02:45claiming without evidence that the process was rigged against him.
02:53The first unofficial results could be announced as soon as polls close on the West Coast at 8 p.m. local time.
02:58Typically, American news media will declare the winner on election night, based on projections.
03:03However, in 2020, it took four days to call the election.
03:06Official results could take days or even longer, due to the amount of mail-in ballots.
03:11Not until each state has certified its vote count will the country know for certain who will be the 47th President of the United States.
03:23For more UN videos visit www.un.org