Fifty-one separate election systems, one national date, and, for the presidency, a two-step in which the popular vote chooses electors and the electors choose the President.
There is no national election authority in the United States. States run federal elections under Article I's Elections Clause, Congress overrides where it chooses (the uniform November date, voting-rights law, the certificationThe official act of finalizing election results: local canvass, state certificate, and, for President, the congressional count on January 6.Full definition in the glossary), and constitutional amendments set who cannot be barred from voting. Here is the full cycle, from filing to swearing-in, with the presidency's extra machinery included.
Every even-numbered year, the entire House and one of the Senate's three staggered classes (about a third of seats) stand for election; every fourth year, the presidency joins them. The off-presidential years are the midterm electionThe federal election held at the midpoint of a presidential term: the whole House, about a third of the Senate, but no presidential race.Full definition in the glossary. Terms are fixed: no early elections, no snap dissolutions, whatever the politics.
The stagger is deliberate design: the House can turn over completely in one wave, the Senate can only turn over a third at a time, and a President faces voters exactly once per term.
The qualifications are short and closed: 25/7-years-citizen/state-inhabitant for the House, 30/9 for the Senate, 35/natural-born/14-years-resident for President. Neither Congress nor the states can add to them, states cannot term-limit their members of Congress (U.S. term limitsOnly the presidency is term-limited federally: two elected terms (Twenty-Second Amendment). Members of Congress can serve unlimited terms; states cannot change that.Full definition in the glossary v. Thornton, 1995).
Only the presidency is term-limited, at two elected terms, by the Twenty-Second Amendment (1951). Congressional term limits would take a constitutional amendment.
Ballot access runs through state law: signatures, fees, deadlines, all different everywhere. Federal money rules are national: once a candidacy crosses $5,000 raised or spent, it registers with the Federal Election Commission and files public reports of every donor over $200 and every expenditure.
Those FEC filings are public by design, and they are exactly what powers this app's campaign-money lens.
Source: FEC, Registering as a candidate
Each party's nominee is chosen in state-run primary electionThe state-run election in which each party's voters choose its nominee for the general election. Rules (open, closed, top-two) vary by state.Full definition in the glossary (or caucuses), under rules that vary by state: closed to registered members, open to all, or restructured entirely (top-two and ranked systems). For the presidency, primaries allocate delegates to the national conventions, which formally nominate the ticket.
Primary electorates are smaller and more partisan than November's, which is why safe-seat politics is often really primary politics.
Source: USA.gov, The election process
Congress fixed the date in 1845: the Tuesday after the first Monday in November. House and Senate races are decided directly, most by plurality, a few states requiring runoffs for a majority. The presidential vote is really 51 separate contests (states plus D.C.) choosing slates of Electoral CollegeThe 538 state-appointed electors who formally elect the President. A candidate needs 270 electoral votes; all but two states award theirs winner-take-all.Full definition in the glossary.
Administration is local: county officials run the polls, state law governs early and mail voting, and recounts follow state triggers and margins.
Source: USA.gov, How elections work
Election night totals are unofficial. In the days after, officials certificationThe official act of finalizing election results: local canvass, state certificate, and, for President, the congressional count on January 6.Full definition in the glossary: verify, reconcile, and total every precinct's returns, resolve provisional ballots, and then certify the results as official. For president, the Electoral Count Reform Act of 2022 put this on a fixed schedule with the state executive legally bound to certify the court-resolved outcome.
Each state appoints electors equal to its congressional delegation (D.C. gets three); 48 states award all of theirs to the statewide winner, Maine and Nebraska split by district. The electors meet in their own states in mid-December and cast separate ballots for President and Vice President, which are sealed and sent to Congress.
Faithless-elector laws, upheld unanimously in Chiafalo v. Washington (2020), let states bind electors to their pledge.
The new Congress meets jointly to open and count the electoral certificates, with the Vice President presiding in a role the Electoral Count Reform Act now defines as purely ministerial. Objections require one-fifth of each chamber to even be heard, and majorities of both to sustain. 270 of 538 wins; no majority, and the House picks the President by state delegation, one vote per state.
Congressional terms begin at noon on January 3, when the new Congress convenes, elects its leaders, and swears in its members. The presidential term begins at noon on January 20, with the 35-word oath the Constitution prescribes verbatim. Until those moments, the previous officeholders unanimous consentDoing business by universal agreement instead of votes. Most Senate floor action happens this way, which is why a single objecting senator has real power.Full definition in the glossary full power, that is the lame-duck period.
Death, resignation, or removal mid-term triggers different rules per office. House: special electionAn off-schedule election to fill a vacancy. House vacancies require one; Senate vacancies are usually filled by gubernatorial appointment until one is held.Full definition in the glossary only, no appointments ever. Senate: in most states the governor appoints a temporary senator until an election, per the Seventeenth Amendment. Presidency: the Vice President succeeds outright, and the line of successionWho acts as President if the office is vacant: Vice President, Speaker, Senate president pro tempore, then the Cabinet in order of each department's creation.Full definition in the glossary fills a VP vacancy by presidential nomination and majority advice and consentThe Senate's shared role in appointments and treaties: nominations need a Senate majority; treaties need two-thirds.Full definition in the glossary of both chambers.
Source: U.S. Senate, Appointed Senators
Stage-specific sources are cited on their stages above.
