10.2: The Rules of American Elections

American elections occur at regularly scheduled intervals, most commonly in even-numbered years. U.S. representatives serve two-year terms, and must therefore win reelection every two years if they want to keep their jobs. Presidents and most governors serve four-year terms; presidents can be reelected once, whereas some governors have unlimited opportunities for reelection (or, in the case of Virginia, none at all). Senators serve six-year terms, which are staggered so that only about a third of the Senate is up for reelection every two years.

In 1845, Congress established the first Tuesday after the first Monday of November as Election Day in the United States. An election held on this day is referred to as a general election. The winner of a general election in November is installed into whichever office he or she won the following January.

Usually there is only one candidate per party in a general election, but parties frequently disagree on whom they should nominate. Parties settle these disagreements through a primary election, commonly held in the summer before the general election. In a primary election, members of a party compete against one another for the opportunity to be nominated by their party for a particular office and advance to the general election, where they will compete against nominees from other parties (as well as any independent candidates). Depending on the state in which they are held, primary elections may be closed (only party members are allowed to vote), semi-open (party members and independents are allowed to vote), or open (anyone is allowed to vote, including members of other parties).

Typically, the winning candidate in an election is the one who receives a plurality of votes — that is, more votes than anyone else. A plurality is not necessarily a majority: in an election involving three candidates, for instance, the winning candidate might receive only 34% of the votes. To ensure that the winning candidate earns majority support from the electorate, some states hold runoff elections between the top two finishers of the general election if the general election winner receives less than a majority of the votes cast.

These rules apply to most American elections, but some states use their reserved powers of election administration to tweak the process. Alaska, California, Louisiana, and Washington hold two-stage elections: candidates from all parties (and any independents) compete in the first round, and the top two finishers (in Alaska, top four), regardless of party, advance to a runoff. New Hampshire and Vermont elect governors to two-year rather than four-year terms. Nebraska’s state legislative elections are nonpartisan (although the legislators still identify as Democrats or Republicans). Alaska and Maine use ranked-choice voting, whereby voters order candidates according to their preferences and the least popular candidate’s votes are redistributed based on voters’ second choices, a process which repeats until one candidate has a majority. These and many other intricacies of America’s electoral system reflect its federal nature.

One reason electoral rules vary so widely among states is that there is no obviously best or most democratic way of counting votes. All methods of tallying ballots have pros and cons. Plurality elections are simple to administer and understand but can produce winners with minority support when three or more candidates are involved. Runoffs between two candidates can ensure the winner has majority support (in the final round at least) but are more expensive, requiring an additional round of campaigning, voting, and counting. Other systems for conducting elections have their own upsides and downsides.