US Election Explainer: How does America vote? A quick guide to the election

• What are Americans voting for on November 5th?

• Votes are already being cast through early voting and mail ballots

• Yet these have become contentious topics in recent years

• What happens after Election Day? Read on to find out...

• Check out our 2024 US Presidential Election Live Blog here

• View Betfair Exchange politics markets as you have never seen before at Betfair Predicts

What exactly are Americans voting for?

As I explained in my previous article, Americans are voting for more than their President on the 5th of November.

There is far more than the Presidential election at stake this November.

There are also national elected seats in the Senate and the House of Representatives - the upper and lower Houses of the US Congress.

Then there are Gubernational elections to elect eleven Governors of states across the country as well as key state-wide positions such as State Attorney Generals and Secretaries of States, as well as local positions in district and country areas.

You can read more here - but now, we'll look into how exactly the United States votes in elections.

The run-up is critical

Running to become the President of the United States is no mean feat.

There are plenty of hurdles standing in your way. As we mentioned in our explainer last week, there are age and citizenship requirements to run for President which are dictated by the Constitution.

If you want to win, it's also fairly critical to be attached to one of the two dominant political parties, whose support you need to win through "primaries" and "caucuses", which are unique processes run by the Republicans and Democrats to poll their party's support for candidates.

The two parties' conventions are critical junctures where a Presidential nominee is selected based on each state's party-affiliated voter preference. Only at that point does the candidate become the official nominee.

When is election day?

The election day in the United States is always held on the first Tuesday after the 1st of November. This year, that makes it Tuesday, 5th November, 2024.

Put it in your calendar now - because it'll make for quite the showdown.

While most voters will cast their votes in person, an increasing number are casting their vote early - usually by mail.

A majority of states let voters cast their vote in the "early voting" period in person, and many others can apply for a postal vote which must also be cast ahead of time.

In 2020, a record number of voters cast postal votes. In total, almost 66 million voters cast their vote by mail in 2020.

Early voting in 2020 became a focal point for the Trump campaign's claims that the election was rigged, as we covered in our daily piece two weeks ago.

The percentage of voters choosing early voting or mail voting has grown in recent years. In 2020 it reached 64% in total, whereas 4 years earlier it was only 36.6%.

How does it work at the ballot box?

At the ballot box, however, the system works much like the system in the United Kingdom.

In the US, a polling place is usually a public building such as a library, school, fire station, church, or sometimes in private businesses.

At the polling place, in some states you will be required to show photo ID. In recent years, since Donald Trump ramped up claims that undocumented immigrants are voting in US Elections, voter ID laws have become a hot topic of political debate.

This year, 35 states require voters to present voter ID in order to vote. Twenty-four of these require photographic ID, while another 11 accept other forms of ID.

Yet when it comes to casting your vote, it can be a complicated business.

As mentioned before, many voters are having to cast their vote for a number of national, state-wide, and local positions. As a result, the ballot paper is a hefty piece of paper.

Most Americans vote with hand-marked paper ballots, as is the case in the United Kingdom. Yet a quarter of voters vote with machines that physically mark paper ballots. These voters can make their selection electronically, and then receive a paper record that is scanned by another machine.

A small minority vote totally electronically, without the need for paper.

Paperless voting has been met with concerns for over two decades now, with many touting the vulnerability of these machines to security issues.

When do results come out after election day?

Ballots entered on election day are taken to the county's election central headquarters, where they are counted by election workers.

There are a series of protocols that demonstrate a paper trail for each ballot, and the data is submitted to a different team who compile the results for each county.

In 2020, postal voting in particular became a contentious topic, with the losing Presidential candidate Donald Trump making a number of claims of rigged voting machines and electoral fraud.

Claims such as these can drag out the official result of a Presidential election, because of the fact that the US Election often hinges on a few thousand voters in key areas.

In the case of 2020, many states were subject to court proceedings regarding their results.

In 2000, in the battle between Al Gore and George W Bush, the voting in Florida was so close that state law required a recount. Legal battles ensued, and ended up in the Supreme Court.

Bush won the state of Florida by only 537 votes, and ended up as President.

So while Election Day is important, sometimes what happens afterwards is even more consequential.

Whatever way this election goes, expect to hear about it well beyond November 5th.

Now read Betfair US election live blog for the latest betting news