Description of Electoral System:

(courtesy of IFES election guide)

The President is elected by electoral college to serve a 4-year term. In the Senate 100 members are elected
by simple majority to serve 6-year terms. In the House of Representatives
435 members are elected by simple majority to serve 2-year terms. One-third of Senate seats are up for elections every two years.

Electoral Systems Snapshot

(Courtesy of International IDEA)

*Click on links for definitions

WANT MORE ELECTION RELATED STATS FOR UNITED STATES? Go to "election databases" on the left-hand menu of this page OR comparative data on the right-hand menu and choose your area of interest.

Politics in the United States

(courtesy of wikipedia)

The United States presidential election of 2004 was held on Election Day, Tuesday, November 2, 2004. Republican candidate George Walker Bush, the President of the United States, was reelected over Democratic candidate John Kerry, the junior United States Senator from Massachusetts. Foreign policy was the dominant theme throughout the election campaign, particularly Bush's conduct of the War on Terrorism and the 2003 invasion of Iraq.

As in the presidential election of 2000, voting controversies and concerns of irregularities emerged during and after the vote. The winner was not determined until the following day, when Kerry decided not to dispute Bush's win in the state of Ohio. The state held enough electoral votes to determine the winner of the presidency.

Bush received about 51 percent of the votes cast (62 million votes), making him the first presidential candidate to win a majority of the popular vote since his father George H. W. Bush in the presidential election of 1988.

Upcoming presidential election: What body would conduct a Presidential recount in each state? Would it be bipartisan, non-partisan, or something else? Click here for an interactive map of all states.