The procedure for the election of the President, Vice-President, Congressmen and US senators

Saint-Petersburg University of the Ministry of the Interior of Russia

 

Department of Foreign Languages

 

ABSTRACT

« The procedure for the election of the President, Vice-President, Congressmen and US senators »

 

 

Performed by:

cadet D. Kholodilin

group 121

                                                                                           

 

Conducted by:

                                                                     Assistant Professor  K. Kagramanyan

                                                                                             

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Saint Petersburg

2017

Contents

1. The procedure for the election of the President and Vice-President in the United Staes……………………………………3
2. Procedure of the election of US congressmen and senators………………………………………………...........................8
3. Сonclusion………………………………………………………….15
4. Sources……………………………………………………………….16

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

1. The procedure for the election of the President and Vice-President in the United States

 

The US President is the head of the US state, the head of the executive branch of the US Federal Government and the commander-in-chief of the Army and the Navy under the US Constitution. Has the right to veto bills (bills) passed by the US Congress. The post originated under the US Constitution, adopted in 1787. The first US President was in 1789 George Washington. The current President of the United States is Donald Trump.

Becoming the US President under the US Constitution can only be a US citizen by birth, over 35 years of age and residing in the United States for at least 14 years. The oldest president at the time of the election was Donald Trump, elected at the age of 69 years.

According to the 22nd Amendment to the Constitution, adopted in 1951, the same person can be elected by the President of the United States no more than twice (no matter, in a row or with a break). In addition, if a person, after the death or resignation of the elected president, has held the presidential post (from the post of vice-president or otherwise) for 2 years or more, then this person may later be elected by the president no more than once. In fact, the presidents and earlier almost all observed this unwritten rule, following the example of George Washington, who was in office for only two terms. However, in 1940, Franklin D. Roosevelt was elected for a third term, and in 1944 - and the fourth (died in 1945).

After that, without detracting from Roosevelt's merits and the extraordinary conditions in which he was re-elected (World War II), it was decided to limit the number of possible re-elections legislatively, so that this case did not become a precedent for establishing a dictatorship. The law was not retroactive and did not apply to the then acting President Harry Truman, who served almost entirely the term of Roosevelt after his death, plus his own, but Truman himself did not want to run again in 1952. Only one president - Grover Cleveland - served two terms with a break. The President of the United States is elected for a four-year term with the Vice-President through indirect (two-stage) elections. Directly for the President and the Vice-President, the so-called electoral college votes. According to the constitution, the Legislative Assembly of each state can appoint a certain number of electors (equal to the number of representatives of the state in Congress) who will represent the interests of the state. The way in which the list of electors is determined, the Legislative Assembly can choose at its discretion, however, at present, all states determine their electors by universal suffrage, which takes place on the first Tuesday after the first Monday of November each leap year

Voting of electors takes place at the beginning of January and represents a certain formality, although it has happened several times that individual electors voted differently than they promised when they were elected. In some states, there are laws that require electors to vote in the manner prescribed by the state.

The electors vote separately for the President and the Vice-President, to elect the candidate must win an absolute majority (more than half) of the electoral votes. If this does not happen, then the President or the Vice-President is elected by the House of Representatives or, accordingly, by the Senate of the US Congress from the number of candidates who received the largest number of electoral votes, according to the rules defined by the constitution.

In the event of the removal of the President from office, his death, resignation or inability to exercise powers and duties, such shall be transferred to the Vice-President of the United States. The original text of the US Constitution was ambiguous and allowed both the interpretation that the vice president receives only powers and duties (that is, becomes, so to speak, "the acting president of the US"), and the interpretation that the vice president gets himself (that is, he becomes president of the United States and brings an appropriate oath). Throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, this provision has always been practically interpreted in the sense that the vice-president becomes a full-fledged president; The first precedent of such a transition took place with John Tyler in 1841, who after the death of William Harrison immediately proclaimed himself president of the United States and refused to print letters addressed to "and. about. president ". Only in 1967 an amendment to the Constitution was adopted, according to which, in this case, "the vice-president becomes the president".

In the event of the removal, death, resignation or incapacity of both the President and the Vice-President, Congress may adopt a law specifying which officer will act as President. Such an official performs the corresponding duties until the reason for the inability of the President to fulfill his duties or the new President is eliminated. Since 1947, there is a law that replaces the president in his office with the following officials in the following order: vice president, speaker of the House of Representatives, first member of the Senate, state secretary, minister of justice, defense minister, finance minister ... This list has a total of 18 posts conspiracy theories, according to which there is a secret continuation of the list with 50 or 100 names and calculated for a nuclear war or a major catastrophe, most experts perceive them skeptically. The procedure for substitution is limited by the condition that the person assuming the duties of the president must be a US citizen by birth in his territory and live in the United States for 9 years (if one of these conditions is not met, then the person concerned is omitted and the right of substitution passes to the next number in the list). Again, there are no existing laws that specify whether this person becomes president or. about. President; there was no precedent for such a transfer of power.

The President is the commander-in-chief of the army and navy of the United States and of the militia of individual states, when she is called on to the active service of the United States. The US President has the right:

- request an opinion in writing from the highest official in each of the executive departments on any matter relating to their official duties;

- grant a deferment of execution of the sentence, as well as pardon for crimes against the United States, except for cases of impeachment (not only own, but also officials of other levels).

- on the advice and with the consent of the senate to conclude international treaties, subject to their approval by two-thirds of the senators present;

- fill all vacancies that open between sessions of the Senate, issuing certificates for posts that expire at the end of its next session;

- in extraordinary cases, may convene both chambers of Congress or any of them;

- in case of disagreement between the Chambers of Congress regarding the time of the transfer of meetings, transfer them themselves for such a time as it deems appropriate.

The President of the United States appoints ambassadors, other official representatives and consuls, judges of the Supreme Court and all other US officials appointed by the council and with the consent of the Senate, whose appointment is not envisaged by the Constitution in a different manner and whose positions are established by law (but the Congress may by law grant the right to designate such subordinate officials, which it deems appropriate, the President alone, the courts or heads of departments).

The President periodically gives Congress information about the situation of the country and recommends for his consideration such measures as he deems necessary and appropriate.

The US President accepts ambassadors and other official representatives, is obliged to take care that the laws are executed in good faith, certifies in office all officials of the United States.

The US Vice President is the second most important official in the executive branch of the US federal government. Elected together with the President of the United States, each candidate for the presidency has a "in a bunch" candidate for a vice-presidential office. Represents the same political party as the president. Formally headed by the US Senate, has a number of other public duties.

In the event of death, resignation or dismissal, the US president becomes a full-fledged US president (officially this provision was adopted only in 1967 as the 25th amendment to the Constitution, in fact the former vice-president in those cases was proclaimed president, although the provisions of the original Constitution were ambiguous and left a place for interpretation, according to which the vice president becomes only the acting president).

Until 1967, in the event of the resignation or death of the vice-president or his assumption of office, the new vice-president was not appointed, and the post remained vacant until new elections. Now, according to the same 25th amendment, there is a provision according to which, in case of a vacancy in this post, the US Congress should appoint a new vice president upon the recommendation of the incumbent president. During 1973-1974, this appointment occurred twice. After the resignation of Vice President Spiro Agnew, Congress on the nomination of Richard Nixon approved by Vice-President Gerald Ford. After eight months Nixon resigned, Ford himself became president, and Congress approved him as vice-president of Nelson Rockefeller

The Institute of Vice-Presidency was repeatedly criticized for the fact that a politician who is not elected as an independent candidate and is often little known, can suddenly become the head of state and abruptly change the policy of his chosen predecessor. On the other hand, the guarantee remains that over the 4-year term, the presidency will remain in the hands of the same party.

In some cases, the vice president serves as president for a very short time. So, for the time of colonoscopy, Bush, conducted under anesthesia, Vice President Cheney took control of the steering wheel.

In the aftermath of the terrorist attack of September 11, 2001, Vice President Cheney often stayed in a secret place, which was allegedly done to prevent terrorists from attempting to assassinate the two top officials simultaneously.

2. Procedure of the election of US congressmen and senators

 

The system of formation of the House of Representatives has developed to the present as a result of a long and contradictory process of interpretation and explanation of the Constitution by the federal courts and the House itself.

In American constitutional theory and practice, there is no doubt only the proposition that "the House of Representatives consists of members elected every two years." Thus, the Constitution established a two-year term for the House of Representatives. All its members are re-elected on the first Tuesday after the first Monday of November of every even-numbered year. However, the term of office of the House of Representatives is calculated not from the election day, but from the day of the first session of the newly elected Congress. At present, such a session begins on January 3 following the election year and expires on the same day two years later. It should be emphasized that the term of office of the House of Representatives coincides with the term of office of the whole congress. At the same time, the president is elected for a period of four years, and the senators for six years.

Thus, the "founding fathers" made the election of the chambers and the president separate (this will be said specifically in the relevant sections of the book) and inconsistent in time, in order to ensure the continuity of power. With this approach, the House of Representatives got into the most disadvantageous position, since the term of its powers is so brief that it almost barely manages to formalize itself as the next election comes. The short-term nature of the powers of the Chamber leads, among other things, to the fact that congressmen are constantly concerned about the issue of re-election, which certainly does not contribute to raising their qualifications as legislators. Norms and proportionality of representation [2. from. 45].

The Constitution also states that members of the House of Representatives are elected by the "population in separate states". This formula was interpreted and practically applied far from equally at different stages of development of American statehood. The initial significance of this formula was that the House of Representatives was theoretically considered part of a congress representing the population and formed by the population directly, and the Senate represented the states and was formed by legislative assemblies of the respective states until the introduction of direct elections of US senators in 1913. As for the very method of election of members of the House of Representatives, he underwent significant changes.

It should be noted that the norm of representation of each state depends on the number of its inhabitants, and all members of the chamber from this state in the language of American constitutional law are called "state delegation in Congress". For several decades, these delegations were elected on the basis of a multinomial majority system, according to which each state represented a single constituency (currently elected presidential electors in this order). In 1842, the federal law came into force, according to which the members of the House of Representatives were elected by the same name (uninominal) constituencies, and the state territory was divided into the number of districts corresponding to its representation rate in the chamber. The former system of election of members of the House of Representatives from the whole state was thus completely abolished. In 1872, another federal law appeared that added to the provisions of the 1842 law the provision on equal numbers of people in the constituencies of each state. The House of Representatives received the right to forfeit the mandate of those members who had been elected in violation of federal legislation, but rarely used its right. The court cases on the determination of the boundaries of electoral districts and their equality were few and did not reach the Supreme Court of the USA until 1962. This was due to the fact that the Supreme Court refused to accept such cases for its production, referring to their "political nature".

In 1962, however, the Supreme Court in the Baker v. Carr changed his initial position and recognized the possibility of the court considering disputes related to constituencies. Two years later, in the case of Wesberry v. Sanders Member of the Supreme Court G. Black, having carefully analyzed the debate of the Philadelphia Convention, pointed out that the order of the Constitution to elect members of the Chamber as "population in certain states" implies equal representation in the election of the House of Representatives. With the known reservations in this decision of the Supreme Court, the principle "one person - one vote" was fixed. This means equality in the size of the population of electoral districts created for elections to the House of Representatives. In 1969, in the case of Kirkpatrick v. The Preisler Supreme Court pointed out that for the practical implementation of the rule "one person, one vote", each state should make "diligent efforts to achieve the exact mathematical equality" of the districts.

The process of reviewing the boundaries of state electoral districts, according to strict judicial requirements of the principle "one person is one voice," began after the 1970 census and affected all states with a representation rate of more than two. Much has been done to eliminate the most outspoken machinations with electoral districts called "dzherrimanderering", but the idea of ​​equal representation has not been implemented consistently throughout the country.

Since 1790 in the United States every ten years (in the "zero" year), as prescribed by the Constitution, nationwide population censuses are conducted; in accordance with their data, redistribution of seats in the House of Representatives between states [3. from. 110].

If the constitutional provisions continued to function (one representative of 30,000 people), then the number of the House of Representatives would now exceed 7,000. However, this did not happen. The law on the redistribution of seats in Congress from 1929, supplemented in 1941, recorded the number of the House of Representatives in 435 deputies. In addition, representatives from the District of Columbia and the so-called island territories take part in the Chamber's work without the right to vote. The President of the United States of America has the law to oblige every ten years, according to the national census data, to submit to Congress a plan for the redistribution of states between states. Established the principle of proportional representation, depending on the population of the respective states. Currently, the quota of state representation exceeds 500 thousand. Thus, the average electoral district for elections to the House of Representatives now has more inhabitants than any of the 13 original states except Virginia. The State Legislature carries out the division of the state territory into electoral districts in accordance with the established norm of representation. The filling of vacancies in the House of Representatives from any state is governed by the constitutions and electoral laws of the respective state. In the event of death or resignation of a member of the House of Representatives, the clerk of the county in which such a representative resided at the time of the election shall notify the state administration of the incident and the governor shall appoint additional elections in the respective constituency.

ТDemands to the voters of the House of Representatives. In Sec. 2 tbsp. I states that voters in the states "must meet the requirements for voters in the larger House of the Legislature of the State". This means that the compilers of the Constitution have fully delegated the issue of the scope and nature of the requirements for voters to the House of Representatives to the discretion of the states. However, it is only apparently that the absolute right of the states was in fact subjected to both constitutional and judicial regulation. Amendments XV, XIX, XXIV and XXVI to the Constitution deprived the states of the right to establish requirements for voters concerning race, gender, payment of election taxes and age. A number of qualifications were actually abolished by decisions of the Supreme Court. Significant changes in the electoral law were made by Congress, although this also does not agree with the literal interpretation of Sec. 2 tbsp. I. The abolition of many qualifications occurred as a result of the persistent struggle of the democratic forces of the United States. As a result, the composition of the electoral body of the country increased; suffice it to say that the reduction in the age qualification from the age of 21 to 18, the abolition of the literacy qualification, and the reduction of the requirements of the residence qualification led to an increase in the federal electorate by almost 32 million.

Currently, all American citizens of both sexes who have reached the age of registration of voters (compilation of electoral lists) 18 years old and who live in the relevant area for a certain period (for presidential elections - 30 days, for all other elections, depending on laws of the respective state, from three months to one year). Insane persons and persons serving sentences in places of detention are not allowed to participate in the voting. Deprivation of electoral rights, under the laws of the states, can be used as an additional measure of punishment for persons convicted of certain categories of serious crimes.

Requirements for candidates for membership of the House of Representatives. Section 2 of Art. I establishes "qualifications" for a candidate in the House of Representatives: age is at least 25 years of age, having a US citizenship for at least seven years, residing at the time of election in the territory of the state from which he is elected. However, only one of them - to be at the time of election by a resident of the relevant state - is absolutely unambiguous. As for the other two requirements, their significance caused a long time of various kinds of controversy. It is now established that the above-mentioned "qualifications" are needed not at the time of the election, but at the time of taking the oath in the ward.