How The Election Works:
Click
on a question to find the answer!
• Who
made up the election rules?
• Can
anyone be U.S. President?
• How
do we decide who gets to be President?
• What
are candidates, and what do they do?
• What
is a political party?
• How
do the parties choose candidates?
• How
are the Pres. and Vice-Pres. elected?
• Does
the person with the most votes win?
LOOKING BACK ON ELECTION 2000:
Check
out the articles covering major election events:
• GO!
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 Clinton is a Democrat. President Bush and President Reagan, the previous two Presidents, were Republicans. 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.
