President

Role of the President. In 1960, John F Kennedy said that the President has “five different responsibilities”: Commander in chief: The Constitution makes the President “Commander in Chief” of the army and navy, but only Congress can declare war. Joe Biden ordered the withdrawal US Armed Forces from Afghanistan in 2021; Party leader: The President is their party’s unofficial leader, at least at the federal level; Legislative leader: The Constitution only empowers the President to sign into law or veto Congressional bills, but in practice the President plays an active role in whipping legislators, especially those of their party. Joe Biden’s Congressional successes include: the American Rescue Plan Act (2021), Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (2021), CHIPS and Science Act (2022), Inflation Reduction Act (2022) and Consolidated Appropriations Act (2023). Foreign policy leader: the President has almost total control over foreign policy (says the Supreme Court), but can only make treaties with the agreement of two-thirds of Senators. Joe Biden has clearly taken the side of Ukraine against the Russian invasion and issued both military aid and sanctions; Domestic policy leader: Presidents make domestic policy promises that are both within and outside of their powers all the time. In 2022, Joe Biden issued a mass pardon for anyone convicted of possessing cannabis under federal law.
Becoming President. Pre-requisites: To become President, the Constitution says that a person must be: a “natural born Citizen”, at least 35 years old and a resident of at least 14 years. The 22nd amendment also only allows a person to be elected President twice and serve for a total of 10 years. It is worth noting that the incumbent President, when they have run, has won two-thirds of the time since 1945. Nomination: The only ever independent President was George Washington; it is now almost essential to first be nominated by either the Democratic or Republican party. To win a party’s nomination for President, a candidate needs to win a majority of party delegate votes at that party’s national convention. Before the national convention (which is usually in the summer), each party in each state (plus some others) will run some form of primary and/or caucus to determine how most delegates will vote. Electoral college: Then, on the first Tuesday in November every four years, voters across the US will cast their ballot for who they want to become their next President. However, the winner is not the person who wins the most votes, but who wins the electoral college… (If the electoral college is tied, then the House of Representatives chooses the President and the Senate chooses the Vice President).
Electoral college. The President is not elected by winning a majority of votes, but the Constitution imposes an electoral college. How does the electoral college work? There are 538 electoral votes, of which a person needs 270 to become President. Electoral votes belong to each of the 50 states (plus the District of Columbia, which has three), but not the territories. In almost all states, whichever candidate gets the most votes in that state gets all the electoral votes of that state. The electoral college works slightly differently in Maine and Nebraska, which give two electoral votes to the state-wide winner, while the rest are given to the winner in each congressional district. Some (increasingly few) states still allow “faithless electors”: electors who ignore the popular vote in their state when casting their electoral vote. How are electoral votes distributed? The number of electoral votes that a state has can be calculated by adding the number of Senators and Representatives that it has together.
Evaluating the electoral college. Is the electoral college fit for purpose? The electoral college, through the cast and count of electoral votes, ensures certainty in the transfer of power; any alternative would have to match this. The electoral college goes some way to balance power between the fewer, more-populated urban states over the greater, less-populated rural states. The electoral college is unrepresentative, giving smaller states fewer and larger states more people per electoral vote (and the territories no electoral votes at all). The electoral college means that a candidate can win the popular vote, but still lose the presidential election, as in 1824, 1876, 1888, 2000 and 2016. The electoral college has given great power to a small number of “swing states”, at the expense of more electorally predictable states, which might affect participation. The electoral college is not necessarily to blame for these problems: it has adapted since it was originally invented to put power in the hands of voters, not electors, and it could now be reformed through the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact. What is the alternative? The electoral college is written into the Constitution and so an amendment would be required to replace it entirely. However, the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact, which has so far been enacted in 16 states (and the District of Columbia), would change the way that delegates cast electoral votes: not according to the result in each state, but for the winner of the overall vote.