US election 2024: When is the US presidential election? Who is in the race?

All eyes are on the United States, as it heads to polls in November. Americans will be voting not only for the president but also for members of Congress, who play a pivotal role in passing laws that impact everyday life.

Here are the most frequently asked questions on the US election.

When is the US presidential election?

The 2024 US presidential election will be held on 5 November, Tuesday. Election Day is traditionally held on the Tuesday following the first Monday in November.

The election winner will serve a four-year term, starting January 2025.

Who are the candidates in the fray?

The presidential race has boiled down to two candidates from the country’s two big parties – the Republican Party and the Democratic Party.

Former President Donald Trump was picked as the official Republican nominee at a party convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He will be up against US Vice President Kamala Harris.

Harris was picked as the Democratic nominee after President Joe Biden dropped out of the race following a disastrous debate against Trump.

There were some independent candidates in the race. The most prominent among them was Robert F Kennedy Jr, nephew of former president John F Kennedy. However, he suspended his campaign in August and has now backed Trump.

Trump chose Ohio Senator JD Vance to be his running mate, while Harris went with Minnesota Governor Tim Walz.

Who else will be elected in November?

While the big focus is the race to the White House, voters will also pick new members of the US Congress.

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Congress comprises the House of Representatives and the Senate.

All 435 spots in the House of Representatives and 34 Senate seats are up for grabs. In the House, members serve a two-year term. Republicans currently have the majority, and Harris’s Democrats will be hoping for a turnaround.

In the Senate, 34 seats out of 100 are available, for a six-year term. Republicans are hoping to overturn the narrow Democratic majority.

The House of Representatives and the Senate pass laws.

How does the US presidential election work?

The electoral college, the indirect system of universal suffrage, governs presidential elections in the United States. Each state has a different number of electors – calculated by adding the number of their elected representatives in the House, which varies according to population, to the number of senators (two per state).

Rural Vermont, for example, has just three electoral votes. Giant California has 54.

There are 538 electors in total scattered across the 50 states and the District of Columbia. To take the White House, a candidate must win 270 votes.

The candidates have to win in contests across the 50 states. The candidate which wins the highest number of votes is awarded all of the state’s electoral college votes.

Most states lean towards a particular party – either Republican or Democratic. Hence, there is a lot of focus on states which switch sides. These are known as swing states and they play a big role in determining the election result.

Candidates who win the most votes need not win the race always. In 2016, Hillary Clinton bagged the most votes but was defeated by the electoral college.

How many people will vote in the election?

The number of Americans who will be eligible to vote in 2024 stands at 224 million, according to the Bipartisan Policy Center. It remains to be seen how many cast their ballot.

According to Pew Research Centre, midterm elections of 2018 and 2022, and the presidential vote of 2020, produced three of the highest turnouts of their kind seen in the US in decades. “About two-thirds (66 per cent) of the voting-eligible population turned out for the 2020 presidential election – the highest rate for any national election since 1900,” Pew says on its website. That translated to nearly 155 million voters, according to the Census Bureau.

How are votes counted? When will the results be declared?

The US does not have a federal counting process. The states count the votes and it can take weeks until the official tally is released.

However, a presidential winner usually emerges on the night of the election.

US media has developed complex methodologies to estimate if a candidate is winning and they usually “call” the election before the official process is complete.

In 2020, it took a few days to count votes.

When does the new president take charge?

After the election, the transition begins. During this time, the new administration appoints Cabinet ministers and plans for the term.

The president is sworn into office in January. The ceremony is called inauguration and is held on the steps of the Capitol building in Washington DC.

With inputs from agencies