How does voting work in the US election? | News about the 2024 US election

As Election Day approaches in the United States, many Americans have already cast their votes in person or by mail through early voting. Others will vote in person at registered polling places on Tuesday.

This is how voting works in the USA:

Who runs elections in the USA?

There is no centralized voting system in the United States.

While the Federal Election Commission enforces federal campaign finance laws, including monitoring donations and public funds for presidential campaigns, the elections themselves are administered by local authorities in each state.

These agencies abide by local, state and federal laws and are guided by the U.S. Constitution. Therefore, election rules vary between states. According to Ballotpedia, more than 10,000 local entities conducted elections across the U.S. in 2020.

What time do polling stations open and close?

The timing depends on the state and municipality. Some polling places in Vermont, for example, open as early as 5 a.m. Eastern Time (ET) (10:00 GMT) in a country with six time zones.

Polls will be open between 7:00 a.m. and 8:00 a.m. ET (12:00 p.m. to 1:00 p.m. GMT) in many states, including Georgia, Pennsylvania, Iowa and Florida.

In Hawaii, polling stations do not open until 5:00 p.m. GMT, which is 7:00 a.m. local time.

Polls close between 7:00 p.m. ET and 1:00 a.m. ET (00:00 a.m. to 06:00 a.m. GMT).

How do voters cast their votes?

In the United States, no one is legally required to cast a vote. There is no online voting system in the United States.

Voters are assigned polling stations in each district. These locations are generally public buildings such as convention centers, libraries, schools, and community centers.

At these locations, voters enter private voting booths to fill out their ballots.

You can find your polling place by entering your information into your state's polling portal using this link from the nonpartisan nonprofit Vote.org.

Hand-marked ballots

Most voters in the United States vote with hand-marked ballots. Typically, voters fill in an oval or square next to the name of their preferred candidate.

According to the Philadelphia-based nonpartisan organization Verified Voting, nearly 70 percent of registered voters live in jurisdictions that use hand-marked paper ballots.

Ballot marking devices

Some jurisdictions provide ballot marking devices (BMDs) that allow voters to cast their vote on a digital device. The device then creates a paper record of the vote. About 25 percent of registered voters live in jurisdictions where BMDs apply to all voters.

Direct recording of electronic voting

A small number of voters cast their votes through a direct-record electronic voting (DRE) system, in which voters press a button or touch screen to cast their votes, which then go directly into the computer system. According to the Council of State Governments website, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Tennessee and Texas used DRE machines in 2020.

Some DRE systems are connected to a Voter Verified Paper Audit Trail printer, which creates a paper record of each vote that voters can verify before their vote is recorded on the computer.

Five percent of registered voters live in jurisdictions where DREs apply to all voters.

How many people have already voted in the USA?

All US states allow voters to cast their ballots before Election Day. Mail-in ballots are the most common method of early voting. All but three states also allow in-person voting before Election Day.

In Alabama, early voting began on September 11, when the state distributed mail-in ballots.

According to an AP News tracker, 77,317,453 people in the United States had already cast their votes as of Sunday. It is estimated that more than 230 million people in the United States are eligible to vote. But only about 160 million of them are registered voters, and not all of them will actually vote.

What ID is required to vote in the USA?

It depends on the state.

• Thirty-five states require voters to show valid ID. In 25 of these states, it must be a photo ID. Commonly accepted forms of identification include a driver's license or passport.
• Fifteen states do not require voters to show ID at polling stations. For example, Nevada does not require voters to bring ID. Instead, voters will be asked to sign their name at the polling station, and the signature will be compared to the signature and ID they provided when registering to vote.

In some states that do not require ID, voters are still required to show their ID the first time they vote or if they did not present valid ID when registering.

How does vote counting work?

There is no federal system for counting votes in the United States and counting votes is left to the states.

Hand-marked paper ballots and ballots marked by BMDs are typically counted using optical scanners and then digitally tabulated to obtain a final count. Different states have different methods for recounting and verifying the final count.

States have until December 11 to certify their election results.

What happens next?

The president is elected not directly by the popular vote, but by the electoral college.

Under this system, each state has the same number of electors in the Electoral College as it has seats in the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate. There are a total of 538 voters in the United States who are appointed by parties and are almost always party officials or supporters. To win, a candidate needs 270 Electoral College votes.

These voters will come together on December 17 this year to cast their votes for President and Vice President.

With the exception of two states, all states use the winner-take-all principle when choosing their electors, meaning that all Electoral College votes go to the candidate who receives the most votes.

The only exceptions are Maine and Nebraska, whose Electoral College votes could be split between the parties. Their distribution is based on the popular vote within the state and at the congressional district level.

In previous elections, there have been cases where voters went against the state's vote and cast their vote for another candidate. They are called “faithless electors.”

In the highly unlikely but not impossible case of a tie – 269 electoral votes each – the US House of Representatives would decide on the next president in a so-called “contingent election”. Each state's delegation in the lower chamber of Congress would cast one vote. To win, a candidate must receive a majority of these votes.

The U.S. Senate would then elect the vice president, with each senator casting one vote and requiring a simple majority (51 votes) to win.

This means that it is theoretically possible for Trump to be elected president alongside Democratic vice presidential nominee Tim Walz or Harris to be elected president alongside Republican vice presidential nominee JD Vance.