Will You be President Someday?
A Supplement to Studies Weekly Publications
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Elections: Past and Present
ev Get th e ry e on l kid vote ine version a nd other details at: s.org and re sponsibilityfoundation.org
Will You be President Someday?
Have you ever wondered if you could be President of the United States someday? Well, the amazing thing about the United States is that dreams can come true. Any citizen who follows some simple rules can be president. All you need are a few great ideas, a lot of hard work and some great people skills. If that sounds like you, you might just be president someday. Some people will say being president is impossible because campaigning costs so much money. That’s true, but don’t worry. You won’t have to pay for it yourself. If you have enough great ideas and enough people like your ideas, they’ll help you raise the money for your campaign. That’s one place having good people skills will come in handy. Campaigning includes traveling all over the country for speeches, rallies and interviews for radio and television programs. Campaigns also include making commercials for TV and the internet as well as taking part in special events. That gives you the chance to convince enough people your ideas are the best. Campaigning to be president is really just asking everyone to trust you. It will be about 25 years or so before you’re old enough to run. That should give you time to practice being a leader and always being trustworthy. Still interested? Great! Here’s how it works. The campaign starts about a year before the election. First, candidates travel across the nation to meet with people and talk about ideas for how to run the country. A candidate is someone who wants to run for a political office. Then, each candidate officially announces that they are
running for president. Next, voters in each state vote for the candidate they believe has the best chance of winning the election. To make these important decisions, some states hold primary elections and others hold caucuses. A caucus is a meeting where a group of voters get together in person. Once all the states have had either their primary elections or their caucuses, they send representatives to the national political conventions. At these national conventions, each political party makes their final choice for a presidential candidate. Once the convention picks a candidate, he or she accepts the nomination. A nomination is an official suggestion or proposal that a candidate should run for president. Then, the candidate chooses a running mate to run as the vice presidential candidate. What’s next? The presidential candidates hit the campaign trail even harder! They use volunteers to put up billboards, signs and posters in every state. The candidates record more television and radio commercials, shake hands and make speeches. They spend a lot of time on buses and jets and visit a lot of states. Candidate don’t get much sleep during these months. They don’t want to lose a single vote! Election Day is on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November. This year, that’s on November 8th. On that day, adult citizens will vote for the candidate of their choice. Each state has a certain number of electoral votes. Whoever gets the most votes from the people in a state usually wins all the Electoral College votes too. On Election Day the votes are added up and the winner is predicted. We never know for sure until about a month later. In mid-December, the Electoral College delegates from each state have a meeting. They cast their votes and the official winner is declared. The new president of the United States is inaugurated (officially sworn into office) on January 20. The election process is finally over, but the work of running the country is about to begin. Do you still want to be president? We hope you do! Our country always needs smart, hard-working, trustworthy people to prepare themselves to be president. It’s never too early to start planning your campaign!
s-w.co/EKV36V16-4
Elections: Past and Present
ev Get th e ry e on l kid vote ine version a nd other details at: s.org and re sponsibilityfoundation.org
Will You be President Someday?
Have you ever wondered if you could be President of the United States someday? Well, the amazing thing about the United States is that dreams can come true. Any citizen who follows some simple rules can be president. All you need are a few great ideas, a lot of hard work and some great people skills. If that sounds like you, you might just be president someday. Some people will say being president is impossible because campaigning costs so much money. That’s true, but don’t worry. You won’t have to pay for it yourself. If you have enough great ideas and enough people like your ideas, they’ll help you raise the money for your campaign. That’s one place having good people skills will come in handy. Campaigning includes traveling all over the country for speeches, rallies and interviews for radio and television programs. Campaigns also include making commercials for TV and the internet as well as taking part in special events. That gives you the chance to convince enough people your ideas are the best. Campaigning to be president is really just asking everyone to trust you. It will be about 25 years or so before you’re old enough to run. That should give you time to practice being a leader and always being trustworthy. Still interested? Great! Here’s how it works. The campaign starts about a year before the election. First, candidates travel across the nation to meet with people and talk about ideas for how to run the country. A candidate is someone who wants to run for a political office. Then, each candidate officially announces that they are
running for president. Next, voters in each state vote for the candidate they believe has the best chance of winning the election. To make these important decisions, some states hold primary elections and others hold caucuses. A caucus is a meeting where a group of voters get together in person. Once all the states have had either their primary elections or their caucuses, they send representatives to the national political conventions. At these national conventions, each political party makes their final choice for a presidential candidate. Once the convention picks a candidate, he or she accepts the nomination. A nomination is an official suggestion or proposal that a candidate should run for president. Then, the candidate chooses a running mate to run as the vice presidential candidate. What’s next? The presidential candidates hit the campaign trail even harder! They use volunteers to put up billboards, signs and posters in every state. The candidates record more television and radio commercials, shake hands and make speeches. They spend a lot of time on buses and jets and visit a lot of states. Candidate don’t get much sleep during these months. They don’t want to lose a single vote! Election Day is on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November. This year, that’s on November 8th. On that day, adult citizens will vote for the candidate of their choice. Each state has a certain number of electoral votes. Whoever gets the most votes from the people in a state usually wins all the Electoral College votes too. On Election Day the votes are added up and the winner is predicted. We never know for sure until about a month later. In mid-December, the Electoral College delegates from each state have a meeting. They cast their votes and the official winner is declared. The new president of the United States is inaugurated (officially sworn into office) on January 20. The election process is finally over, but the work of running the country is about to begin. Do you still want to be president? We hope you do! Our country always needs smart, hard-working, trustworthy people to prepare themselves to be president. It’s never too early to start planning your campaign!
