When Is The American Presidential Election

The American presidential election 2008 will be held at the same time when the 2008 Senate, House of Representatives and gubernatorial elections take place. Along with that many state and local elections will also be taking place at the same time.

In America the presidential candidate that receives the majority votes in the electoral college becomes the president elect of the nation. Usually 270 votes are required to receive majority votes. The same holds true for the vice president. However, if no presidential candidate receives majority votes, the president is decided and selected by a vote in the House of Representatives and each state in the U.S. receives a single vote. The last time such a situation happened was in 1825 and then again in 1837.

In the presidential election 2008, the allocation of the electoral votes for each state will be based to a certain extent on the 2000 census.

When the United States president is leaving office, his vice president usually becomes a leading contender for president and is the most likely candidate to succeed him. However, the current vice president, Dick Cheney has clearly stated that he would not be running for president in the American presidential election 2008. This would be the first time since the 1928 election when neither the incumbent president nor the incumbent vice president would be running for his party’s nomination for the presidential election

The president elect along with the vice president elect will be inaugurated into office on January 20, 2009.