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Washington: Donald Trump won the presidency in 2016 because of the Electoral College. So did George W Bush in 2000.

The Electoral College is the unique American system of electing presidents. It is different from the popular vote, and it has an outsize impact on how candidates run and win campaigns. Republicans Trump and Bush lost the popular vote during their presidential runs but won the Electoral College to claim the nation’s top office.

Some Democrats charge that the system favors Republicans and they would rather the United States elect presidents by a simple majority vote. But the country’s framers set up the system in the Constitution, and it would require a constitutional amendment to change.

A look at the Electoral College and how it works, as Trump and Vice-president Kamala Harris, the Democratic nominee for president, compete for the White House on Election Day, Nov 5:

What is the Electoral College?

The Electoral College is a 538-member body that elects a president. The framers of the Constitution set it up to give more power to the states and as a compromise to avoid having Congress decide the winner.

Each state’s electors vote for the candidate who won the popular vote in that state. The runner-up gets nothing—except in Nebraska and Maine where elector votes are awarded based on congressional district and statewide results.

To win the presidency, a candidate must secure 270 electoral votes—a majority of the 538 possible votes.

How is it different from the popular vote?

Under the Electoral College system, more weight is given to a single vote in a small state than to the vote of someone in a large state, leading to outcomes at times that have been at odds with the popular vote.

It also affects how candidates campaign. Because the outcome is almost certain in solidly Republican states and solidly Democratic states, candidates tend to focus most of their efforts on a handful of swing states that have split their votes in recent elections.

Who are the electors?

Electors are allocated based on how many representatives a state has in the House of Representatives, plus its two senators. The District of Columbia gets three, despite the fact that the home to Congress has no vote in Congress.

It varies by state, but often the electors are picked by state parties. Members of Congress cannot serve as electors.

How and when are the votes counted?

After state election officials certify their elections, electors meet in their individual states—never as one body—to certify the election. This year, that will happen on Dec 17.

If the two candidates have a tied number of votes, the election is thrown to the House, where each state’s congressional delegation gets one vote. That has happened only twice, in 1801 and 1825.

Once a state’s electors have certified the vote, they send a certificate to Congress. Congress then formally counts and certifies the vote at a special session on Jan 6. The Vice-president presides as the envelopes for each state are opened and verified.

Can lawmakers object?

Lawmakers can object to a state’s results during the congressional certification, as several Republicans did after the 2020 election. On 6 Jan 2021, the House and Senate both voted to reject GOP objections to the Arizona and Pennsylvania results.

After Trump tried to overturn his defeat to Democrat Joe Biden and his supporters stormed the Capitol on Jan 6, Congress updated the 1800s-era Electoral Count Act to make it harder to object and to more clearly lay out the vice president’s ceremonial role, among other changes. Trump had pressured Vice-president Mike Pence to try and object to the results—something the Vice-president has no legal standing to do.

Once Congress certifies the vote, the new or returning president will be inaugurated Jan 20 on the steps of the Capitol.

AP

Today marks the start of a pivotal election in the United States, featuring a closely watched race between Democratic and Republican candidates.

Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump are competing to become the 47th President of the United States, each representing their respective party.

Trump seeks a second term, while Harris is stepping up after President Joe Biden endorsed her candidacy following his decision not to seek re-election. The US election process includes direct voting as well as the Electoral College.

Both candidates are concentrating their final campaign efforts on key battleground states, with analysts suggesting this election could have a major impact on global affairs.

Key issues include immigration, gun rights, economic opportunities, women's rights, and rising global instability.

Despite efforts to revive the economy post-covid, inflation remains a significant issue, with rising costs of essentials placing pressure on the middle class and making economic concerns a central focus.

The Democratic Party, known for its immigrant-friendly policies, has Kamala Harris as its candidate, while Trump, currently facing legal challenges, represents the Republicans. Both candidates face substantial obstacles.

Swing states critical to election outcome

Seven states are expected to be critical in determining the election results: Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. Among them, Pennsylvania, the fifth most populous state, is particularly crucial. In 2016, Trump won five of the seven swing states to secure the presidency, while Biden claimed six in 2020.

Pennsylvania has seen significant investment in election advertising, with $1.20bn allocated for media campaigns in the state alone—over 10 percent of the $10.53bn spent nationwide. Early voting in Pennsylvania has already seen participation from 1.6m voters.

Influence of Nepali voters

Around 25,000 Nepali American voters live in Pennsylvania, where their votes could be significant.

Harry Bhandari, a politician in Harrisburg, is leading efforts to raise voter awareness, accompanied by 51 Maryland-based volunteers on Saturday. "We’re engaging in politics to inspire future generations. Kamala Harris, as a second-generation immigrant, aims to make history, which will inspire others," he said.

Local political organizer Abhisek Thapa stated, "This election is especially competitive. We believe our (Nepali) votes will make an impact this year. We are reaching out to every Nepali household to encourage voting."

Social worker and activist Binita Puri mentioned that voter awareness rallies are being organized, expressing optimism for increased turnout. The Nepali American community is divided in its support between Harris and Trump, with many voicing their views on social media.

While there are 231m eligible voters in the US, only 168m are registered. A candidate needs to secure 270 of the 538 Electoral College votes to win, regardless of the popular vote.

A furious diplomatic row between India and Canada has pushed an otherwise fringe separatist campaign for an independent Sikh homeland in Punjab into the international spotlight. The ‘Khalistan’ campaign dates back to India’s 1947 independence, and has been blamed for the assassination of a prime minister and the bombing of a passenger jet.

It has been a bitter issue between India and several Western nations with large Sikh populations. New Delhi demands stricter action against the Khalistan movement, which is banned in India, with key leaders accused of ‘terrorism’. Canada has alleged that India arranged the 2023 killing in Vancouver of a Khalistan campaigner, 45-year-old naturalized Canadian citizen Hardeep Singh Nijjar. Four Indian nationals have been arrested in connection with the murder. 

New Delhi, which wanted Nijjar for alleged terrorism offenses, calls the allegations ‘absurd’. In a separate case, in which New Delhi is cooperating, the United States has accused India of directing a 2023 failed assassination plot in New York. The alleged target was another Khalistan campaigner, dual US-Canadian citizen Gurpatwant Singh Pannun.

The US State Department on Wednesday said India had told it that an intelligence operative accused of directing the plot was no longer in government service.

The first visit to Pakistan by a top Indian diplomat in nearly 10 years was an ‘ice breaker’, the information minister said Wednesday, as regional heads of governments gathered for a Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit.

Nuclear-armed India and Pakistan are bitter adversaries with longstanding political tensions, having fought several wars and numerous smaller skirmishes since they were carved out of the subcontinent’s partition in 1947.

“Neither us nor them requested a bilateral meeting... but I believe his arrival here is an ice breaker,” the information minister Attaullah Tarar said on the sidelines of the summit in the capital Islamabad. “Yesterday, when all the leaders were being welcomed and there were handshakes, I think positive images were sent out globally.”

Indian Foreign Minister S Jaishankar and Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif greeted each other with a handshake and somber expressions at the start of an official dinner for the visiting leaders of the SCO bloc on Tuesday.

Relations between neighbors India and Pakistan have been particularly sour since 2019, when Prime Minister Narendra Modi revoked the limited autonomy of Indian-administered Kashmir. Modi’s 2019 move was celebrated across India but led Pakistan to suspend bilateral trade and downgrade diplomatic ties with New Delhi. The Himalayan region of Kashmir is divided between India and Pakistan but claimed by both in full, with each accusing the other of stoking militancy there.

Premiers from SCO member states China, Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan all attended the meeting in a Pakistani capital that was locked down by tight security.

In his address, Jaishankar stressed the importance of “mutual trust, friendship and good neighborliness.” “If activities across borders are characterized by terrorism, extremism and separatism, they are hardly likely to encourage trade, energy flows, connectivity and people-to-people exchanges in parallel,” he said.

Sharif opened the meeting on Wednesday with an address in which he called on the China- and Russia-led bloc to ensure ‘collective security’ and cooperation for “sustainable development and prosperity for the SCO region.” He called on leaders to prevent militant groups from flourishing in Afghanistan. “The international community must step forward” to press the Taliban government and “ensure Afghan soil is not misused for terrorism against its neighbors,” Sharif said.

Afghanistan, at a crossroads between the bloc’s members, presents “an invaluable and rare opportunity for trade and transit benefitting all SCO member states,” he said. It has observer status at the SCO but has not been invited to international conferences since the Taliban ousted the Western-backed government in Kabul three years ago. 

AFP