The future of the United States will be determined by the presidential election on November 5.
It is not at all a contest run nationally.
Each of the 50 states, as well as the District of Columbia, manages its own elections in a slightly different way.
Here’s a look at some notable variations in the 2024 election:
Maine and Nebraska
In the Electoral College, a candidate needs to secure at least 270 of the 538 votes in order to win the presidency hands-down.
The winner of a state receives all of the electoral votes in that state (48 states), and the nation’s capital is no exception.
Each congressional district in Maine and Nebraska gives one electoral vote to the candidate with the most votes in that district. Two more go to the candidate who wins the statewide vote.
Having won both the state’s popular vote and its first congressional district, Democrat Joe Biden was awarded three of Maine’s four electoral votes in 2020. The second Congressional District awarded one electoral vote to Republican Donald Trump.
In addition to taking home the state’s first and third congressional districts, Trump secured four of Nebraska’s five electoral votes; Biden secured one electoral vote by winning the state’s second Congressional District.
Alaska and Maine
Voters rank candidates for office on the ballot according to their preferences in ranked choice voting. The candidate with the fewest votes is eliminated if no contender receives more than 50 per cent of the vote in the first place.
The votes of those who selected that candidate as their first preference will be reallocated to their second choice. Until someone gains a majority of the votes, this process is repeated, eliminating the candidate who receives the fewest votes.
Maine uses ranked choice voting in state-level primaries and for federal offices in the general election. In other words, voters in Maine will be able to rank candidates for president, the Senate, the House, and third parties as well as independents and Democrats and Republicans who qualified after winning their respective party primary.
Along with three other contenders, the presidential ballot will feature Trump and Democrat Kamala Harris. In the six years since implementing ranked choice voting, the state has used it twice in races for Congress in its second Congressional District.
The 2020 presidential contest was decided without the use of ranked choice voting, as the winners in every state and congressional district received more than half of the total vote.
For statewide offices, Alaska conducts open primaries. The top four candidates, regardless of party, advance to the general election, when ranked choice voting is used to determine the winner. Alaskans are able to rank up to four names for legislative and statewide executive seats, with several candidates from the same party being allowed.
The exception is the presidency, which is eligible for ranked choice voting in Alaska for the first time. This year, there will be eight presidential tickets on the ballot, and Alaskans can rank all candidates if they choose to. The last time the winner of the presidential contest in Alaska failed to surpass 50% of the vote was in 1992, when third-party candidate Ross Perot won almost 20% of the national popular vote.
But in 2022, both Democratic Rep. Mary Peltola and Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski won their elections after both went to ranked choice voting.
This year, another fold? This fall, an effort will be placed on the ballot in Alaska to repeal the ballot measure that imposed ranked choice voting in 2020.
California and Washington
Open primaries are held in California and Washington, when all candidates compete on the same ballot and the top two vote-getters — regardless of party — move on to the general election. Two House races in Washington this year feature candidates from the same party: one has two Republicans and the other has two Democrats. In California, there are four: one with solely Republicans, three with only Democrats.
Louisiana
Louisiana holds what it refers to as its “open primaries” on the same day the rest of the country holds its general election. In Louisiana, all candidates run on the same open primary ballot. Any candidate who earns more than 50 per cent of the vote in the primary wins the seat outright.
If no candidate exceeds 50 per cent of the vote, the top two vote-getters advance to a head-to-head runoff, which can end up pitting two Republicans or two Democrats against each other. Louisiana refers to these contests as its “general election.”
This is set to change for US House elections beginning in 2026, when congressional races will have early primaries that are only open to registered party members. Although certain state contests will still have open primaries in November, this move will stop prospective Congressmen from learning their fate in Washington, DC, a month later than the national average, until December.
Nebraska
In Nebraska, any measure that receives approximately 123,000 valid signatures qualifies for the ballot. This year,
two measures relating to abortion met this threshold.
One would enshrine in the Nebraska Constitution the right to have an abortion until fetal viability or later, to protect the health of the pregnant woman. The other would include the present 12-week prohibition — with exceptions for rape, incest, and saving the pregnant woman’s life — into the constitution.
This marks the first time since the 2022 Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade that a state has measures that seek to roll back abortion rights and protect abortion rights on the ballot at the same time.
It’s possible voters could end up approving both measures. But because they’re competing and therefore cannot both be enshrined in the constitution, the measure with the most “for” votes will be the one adopted, according to the Nebraska secretary of state.
Georgia
In primary elections, a handful of states, mostly in the South, go to runoffs if no candidate receives at least 50% of the vote. In races with more than two candidates, runoffs in those states are common. Several states held primary runoffs this year.
Georgia uses the same rules in general elections. The last three Senate races there went to runoffs because a third-party candidate won enough of the vote to prevent the Republican or Democratic nominee from exceeding 50 per cent of the vote.
But this year, runoff possibilities may be confined to down-ballot races such as state legislature. There’s no Senate race there this year, and the US House races have only two candidates on the ballot.
Texas, Florida and Michigan report many votes before final polls are closed
This is common in states that span multiple time zones. In most states, polls close at the same time in each time zone.
Florida, Michigan, Texas, and Oregon are some of the largest states with split poll close times. Tennessee is an exception in that all counties coordinate their voting to end at the same time, despite the state falling within both the Eastern and Central time zones.
With inputs from The Associated Press
This post was originally published on here
