When is the election and when are the results in?

The US 2024 election is scheduled for Tuesday, November 5, 2024. The winner will be inaugurated in January, 2025.

What is the Electoral College?

The Electoral College is a voting system where the president is not elected directly by the people but through ‘electors’. Based on population size, each state has a varied number of electors. This implies some states are more vital in winning the presidential election. California, for example, has 54 electors, whereas Alaska has three.

After every political party has nominated a presidential candidate, voters cast their ballots for the future president and whoever receives the most electors within a state receives the votes of all electors within that state. Implying that the candidates win states rather than individual votes.

There are 538 electors for president, which means that a majority of 270 is required to win.

Who are the candidates?

As of August 18, there are 13 Republicans, 3 Democrats and one candidate from the Third Party running.

Two high-profile candidates from the Republican party are Donald J Trump, the former president of the US, and Ron DeSantis, Governor of Florida.

Other Republican candidates are:

Mike Pence: Served as the vice president of the United States from 2017 to 2021 under Donald Trump. Pence was involved in an enormous scandal when he refused to back Trump’s demands to block the certification of Joe Biden’s victory which cost him a sizable amount of support among the Republican voters.

Nikki Haley: Former governor of South Carolina, Haley served as Donald Trump’s ambassador to the UN. She is the only female candidate in the Republican pool. She is the first Indian American to serve as a member of a presidential cabinet with her policies focused on lower taxes, barring pensions and pro-life legislation.

Ryan Binkley: He is a pastor and entrepreneur from Texas and used millions of his own dollars to invest in the presidential campaign with its mission to unite the country with the love of God. He mainly focuses on four policy issues: immigration reform, taking on big pharmaceutical companies, uplifting urban centers through education and reducing national debt.

Doug Burgum: American businessman and politician who has served as North Dakota’s 33rd governor since 2016.

Chris Christie: Former governor of New Jersey 2010-18, lawyer and politician. Known by the public as the “moderate” voice in the Republican Party.

Larry Elder: Conservative talk radio broadcaster and political pundit from the United States.

Will Hurd: Former CIA covert officer and American politician who represented Texas’s 23rd congressional district from 2015 to 2021. He rose to prominence in Congress for his skills in technology and cybersecurity, as well as his bipartisanship.

Asa Hutchinson: American attorney, businessman, and politician who served as Arkansas’s governor from 2015 to 2023. He previously served as a U.S. attorney, a U.S. Congressman, and in two capacities in the George W. Bush administration as a Republican.

Perry Johnson: American entrepreneur, businessman, and author. In 2022, he ran for the Republican candidate for governor of Michigan.

Vivek Ramaswamy: Ramaswamy gained a reputation as a “anti-woke” campaigner in conservative circles. He began his campaign by stating that the United States is experiencing a “national identity crisis,” which he attributes to “new secular religions” such as “woke-ism,” “climate-ism,” “covid-ism,” and “gender ideology.”

Tim Scott: Scott is the only black Republican in the US Senate and the top Republican on the Senate banking committee. He has centered his message on fiscal and social conservatism — his campaign slogan is “Faith in America”. He stands for pro-life policies, police reform and strong immigration policy.

Francis Suarez: Since 2017, Miami’s 43rd mayor has been an American lawyer and politician. He was elected mayor of Miami for the first time in 2017 and will be re-elected in 2021. Suarez was known for his support of bitcoin during his mayoralty.

The current US President Joe Biden is running from the Democratic party, among these other candidates:

Robert F Kennedy Jr: Environmental lawyer, politician, and author. He is well-known for promoting anti-vaccine disinformation and conspiracy theories about public health, as well as environmental protection, particularly of rivers and other bodies of water.

Marianne Williamson: She began her professional career in Warren, Michigan, as the spiritual head of the Church of Today, a Unity Church. Williamson is the author of multiple self-help books that have become New York Times Best Sellers.

Oprah Winfrey catapulted her to fame by having her as a regular guest on her daytime talk programme and as her spiritual advisor.

Third party:

Cornel West: Philosopher, political activist, social critic, actor, and public intellectual from the United States. He is a vocal supporter of left-wing politics in the United States.

Who is leading the polls?

The current polls show a favorite for each party.

Trump served as the 45th president of the United States from 2017 to 2021 with strong right-wing leaning policies such as strong immigration policy, sizable income tax cuts, deregulation and increased military spending.

The second strongest candidate from the Republican party is Ron DeSantis who served as Florida’s governor since 2019. He signed a slate of laws banning minors from receiving gender-affirming care and restricting education on sexual orientation and gender identity in schools, and he has become an outspoken critic of the Chinese Communist party.

The current US President Joe Biden leads the Democratic polls with a polling average of around 64.3%. He declared the start of his re-election campaign earlier in April.

Biden wanted to underline the vast difference between himself and the main Republican contenders when he shared his campaign video. He brings up social issues such as women’s health care, LGBTQ+ concerns, and voting rights.

He claims that while his first term was productive (the president worked with Congress last session to enact laws such as the Inflation Reduction Act, the Bipartisan Infrastructure Act, and the CHIPS & Science Act), he needs a second term to “finish the job.”