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# 1 What is the process by which the Democrats and Republicans select their nominations for President and do they differ ?
They're the same. They each have primaries that select delegates in each state as well as super delegates. It takes about 1200 delegates to get the nomination and the delegates are divided by each state based on population. California, Texas and New York get almost 400 delegates and small states like Montana get 3. There are 200 super delegates who are elected members of congress. Whoever gets to the 1200 delegates first gets the nomination and if nobody gets the 1200 then they broker the delegates at their convention. The last time this happened was in 1960 when John Kennedy didn't have enough delegates so he made a deal with Johnson who told his delegates to vote for Kennedy. In return Kennedy picked Johnson as his Vice president.
# 2 How is the President elected and what does someone's vote in Boise count for in comparison to say someone in San Diego?
It's the same as the primaries but instead of delegates they have the electorial college. The electorial college gives the winner of a state all the
electorial college votes which gives smaller states some say who's elected.
The idea of the electoral college is to give several smaller states the same power as say one large state like California.
The USA was set up to give a balance of power because in 1776- 1791 there was a huge fight over slavery and the south wanted to keep their slaves and the north didn't so for the south to sign on they wanted equal power.
The congress is set up the same way with the each state getting two senators no matter their size then the house of representatives is divided by districts based on population.
It takes the house, senate and the President to all agree on anything unless the Senate can get 2/3 to vote against him. This limits the Presidents powers
so he/she can't be a dictator.
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