¶ The founding fathers of these UNITED STATES in writing the constitution outlined the way the nation would work. When talking about the election of a president they adopted the requirements that a candidate be a "natural born" citizen of the the UNITED STATES, at least 35 years old, and a resident of the UNITED STATES i.e.,living here for at least 14years.
¶ Therein they felt that an understanding of the nation was very important for the president. Also, life experience was important and the founding fathers felt anyone under 35 years old had not experienced enough to understand the country.
¶ And since presidents have to deal with problems at home and in foreign countries knowledge of the nation's history is necessary which the founders felt a 14 year residence was enough time to understand these issues!
¶ Every FOUR years Americans vote to elect a President to lead the most powerful free nation in the world.
¶ The American Government, as designed by our founding fathers at the Constitutional Convention, has three parts ---or branches:
*THE EXECUTIVE [President/Vice-President]
*THE LEGISLATURE [Congress]
*THE JUDICIAL [Supreme Court]
¶ It was set up this way so that each branch of the government could do its job and also check to see that the other branches worked they way they should.
¶ It was important that the EXECUTIVE BRANCH -- run by the President, was neither too weak nor too strong. Thus, in the Constitution, they created an executive with definite and limited powers.
¶ This is known as a system of "checks and balances!
¶ So, may the president do anything he wants? NO!
The president may not break laws while he is in office.
¶ The House of Representatives can bring impeachment charges against the president for "treason, bribery or other high crimes and misdemeanors". If it does, the president is then tried by the Senate with the Chief Justice of the UNITED STATES overseeing the trial.
¶ A two-thirds maority of each house of congress is needed to convict the president and remove him from office......
.......Presidents Andrew Johnson and William Clinton were impeached. This means that there were charges brought against them, but neither man was found guilty and convicted. President Richard Nixon resigned while facing certain impeachment.
¶ Being president is actually five jobs in one:
€ CHIEF EXECUTIVE:
¶ He enforces the constitution and laws passed by Congress. He can issue executive orders but they may be declared unconstitional in the courts. He chooses all government officials, including Cabinet officers, Supreme Court Justices and others, but the Senate must approve the people he picks.
€ CHIEF LEGISLATOR/LAWMAKER:
¶ He can veto [that is reject or throw out] any bill passed by Congress, or he can use his influence [power] on Congress to get a bill passed. But Congress can override the President's veto by a two-thirds majority.
€ CHIEF DIPLOMAT:
¶ He determines UNITED STATES foreign policy ... that is, how our country deals with other countries, he negotiates treaties and he picks ambassadors [the government officials] we send to other countries. As with his other choices, however, possible ambassadors must be approved by congress!
€ COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF:
¶ The President is the Commander-in-Chief of the armed forces -- the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marines. He chooses the top military commanders and gives them military advice. He may also order them into action, either within the UNITED STATES or in foreign countries. But the president may not send UNITED STATES troops to international conflicts for more than 90 days without Congress making a formal declaration of war.
€ CHIEF OF STATE:
¶ He represents our country by attending special events and entertains other world leaders when they visit the UNITED STATES.
¶ VOTING IS FREE and it is easy. To vote you must be a citizen of the UNITED STATES, live in the community and state where you plan to vote, and be at least 18 years old.
¶ VOTING TODAY ¶
¶ Voters think they are voting for the candidate of their choice but, really, thanks to something called the Electorial College, they are not! The Electorial College system is unique to the UNITED STATES. A close reading of the ballot will show that voters are not actually choosing a candidate.
¶ Rather, they are really picking a group of people known as electors promised to that candidate. Every state choses as many electors as it has members of Congress [ Members of Congress would be a voter's senators and representatives, so, for example, because Indian has two senators and ten representative, it has twelve electors.]
¶ All told, there are 535 elector from the 50 states, plus three from the District of Columbia {UNITED STATES CAPITAL}. A candidate must win the votes of a majority of the electors .... or, 270. On election day the votes are counted and that total is know as the popular vote.
¶ In each state, the candidate who wins the most popular votes wins all of the state's electorial votes. After election day, the electors meet and officially vote for the president. BELIEVE IT OR NOT, although electors are "pledged" to a particular candidate, they are NOT REQUIRED TO VOTE FOR THAT CANDIDATE! It is extremely rare for an elector not to vote for the candidate he or she originally chose, but ELECTORS ARE FREE TO VOTE FOR WHOMEVER THEY WANT!
¶ A candidate must get a majority of the electorial votes to become president. If no candidate has done so, the House of Repesentatives chooses the president from among the top three candidates in electorial votes. Sometimes a president will be elected even though he did not win a majority of the popular vote!
¶ In the 2000 election, Al Gore and George Bush were running neck and neck. The election came down to FLORIDA and its electorial votes. The candidate who won FLORIDA's votes would be the next president. But there were problems .... many of FLORIDA's voting machines had malfunctioned and many other ballots were invalidated for various reasons.
¶ Thus, the FLORIDA results were unclear. There were court challenges, recounts, and even a UNITED STATES Supreme Court chalenge concerning recounts from two counties. The FLORIDA Supreme Court had ordered a manual recount [conducted by hand, not by machine] of ballots, but the UNITED STATES Supreme Court overturned that decision.
¶ George Bush received FLORIDA's electorial votes and became President of the UNITED STATES, even though he had NOT won the popular vote in the nation. The 2000 election was NOT the first one in which a candidate was elected president without receiving the majority of the popular vote. It happened three other times .... in 1824, 1876 and 1888.
CITIZEN'S RESPONSIBILITY
CONSTITUTION
THE UNITED STATES CONSTITUTION
GOVERNMENT/POLITICS
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10-16-04
Revised: 08-13-05