The Presidential Election Process

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The presidential election occurs every four years in the United States. The election is perhaps among the only events that rally virtually the entire American population into a heated competition for months on end, and the results carry great importance. When the country elects a new Chief Executive, who becomes the single most recognizable figure of leadership, an intricate process is required to ensure that everyone has their say and a proper leader is chosen. The election process of the United States spans months and is separated into multiple stages, which include the caucuses, primaries, and national conventions before proceeding to the general elections.
The first stage of the election process, excluding the campaigns and publicity that …show more content…

Just as each political party conducts separate primaries, they also conduct party-specific national conventions: the Democratic National Convention and the Republican National Convention. During both national conventions, the elected delegates of their respective political party nominate a presidential candidate to run for the office on the party's behalf as well as establish the party’s platform for the election (which is a formal statement of goals the party makes to gain support from the general public). The Democrats also take the opportunity to unify their party, while the Republicans establish a set of rules to follow during the general election cycle. Recently, the significance of the national conventions has been undermined by the fact that the nominee is usually determined by the results of the caucuses and primaries, demoting the national convention to a ceremonial event that cements that which has already been established. Formerly, the purpose of the conventions was to select a candidate for the nomination, but because the candidate has consistently been determined prior to the event in recent history, the conventions have merely become ceremonial events that mark the end of the primary season and the beginning of the general election …show more content…

This occurrence leaves Trump as the only remaining Republican candidate, making the nomination arguably irrelevant. For the Democrats, a similar situation may loom in the near future, as Democratic candidate Hilary Clinton olds a total of 2,205 delegates in her favor. This number is only 178 away from the majority needed to guarantee the nomination and 804 ahead if her only remaining opponent, Bernie Sanders. Unless a rare occurrence akin to the 1924 presidential election occurs (during which William Gibbs McAdoo led the primaries by a wide margin but ultimately failed to secure the nomination), one can already conclude that Clinton will be nominated by the Democrats and lessening the importance of the Democratic National

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