Det amerikanske valgsystem og præsidentvalg

We have learnt about how the american elections work and how they are held. A candidate chooses to run for either the republican party or the democratic party if he wants to win the elections. It is possible to run for another party or even running yourself, but then there will be no realistic chance of victory. A candidate often ends up using billions of dollars on their campaign. Hillary Clinton ended up using 1.2 billion dollars on her campaign while trump only used 932 million dollars.

Before a presidential candidate has to campaign and advertise his campaign, he has to be chosen as the presidential candidate from his party. To get elected as the presidential candidate for your party you have to battle other potential candidates from your own party. That is, if there are any. A heavy amount of the campaign goes to getting the electoral voters in your favor. In the american elections, candidates tend to be a little more ruthless. They hire lots of people with the sole purpose of digging up scandals from the opponent's past (Grab ‘em by the pussy and Hillary's email scandal are great examples of this). The reason for the huge amount of effort put into this is because it works. Hillary Clinton's email scandal lost her a huge amount of her loyal voters. The electoral college is a group with a number of electors from each of the 50 american states. Regardless of which candidate had the majority of the votes in the normal elections, the electoral college is who decides which candidate becomes president. A prime example of this is the election in 2000. Even though Al Gore won the popular vote, George Bush had the most electoral votes and therefore he won the elections. This has even happened multiple times before. Many people dislike this way of voting as they find it undemocratic. In the end it actually doesn’t matter if you win the popular vote. Many people choose not to vote because of this. A candidate also has to appeal to the people. As he/she has to lead the country for at least 4 years it is only fitting that an average american should be able to relate to the president. Many kids naturally look up to the president, so he has to show himself off to the people. Barack Obama wanted to be a loving and caring family man, while Donald Trump wants to appear as the hardcore businessman. The american presidential election is easily one of the most important events in the world. They have been held during the american civil war and during the great depression. They are being monitored by the whole and many try to get the election going in their favor. The democrats being hacked by the russians is a great example of a country trying to alter the outcome of an election.