Category:United States Presidential Elections

This category contains articles on United States Presidential elections which have taken place in various Harry Turtledove stories.

The United States Constitution calls for elections of the President and Vice President on the first Tuesday after the first Monday of every fourth year beginning in 1788. At first the second-place Presidential candidate served as Vice President, but since he was usually a political enemy of the President, this was soon found to be undesirable. Now the President and Vice President are elected together on a single ticket.

The President is not elected directly. US citizens vote in their home state, with the state assigning its votes in the Electoral College to the winner of the state's election. Each state's electoral vote is equivalent to its Congressional delegation: the total number of seats in the House of Representatives assigned to it by the most recent census, plus two for the two Senate seats every state has. Most states give their entire delegations to the top vote-getter (winner take all) but some attempt to divide their votes in proportion to the totals of each candidate (proportional voting). US citizens living in territories do not participate in presidential election. This was once true for the District of Columbia as well, but the District was assigned three electoral voters by the Twenty-Third Amendment to the Constitution in 1961.

The Electoral College votes on the Monday following the second Wednesday of December in an election year. Electors are often not bound to respect the results of their state's election, and are theoretically free to cast their votes against their states' wishes, though in practice electors are chosen for their extreme loyalty to a candidate.

If no candidate secures a majority in the electoral college, the House of Representatives chooses the winner from among the top three vote-getters. The Senate chooses the Vice President, so in this situation a President may serve with a Vice President other than his running mate.

Since the date is set, the elections will be held at that time for as long as the Constitution is functioning regardless of changed political circumstances. Thus, in writing alternate history, a Presidential election may have dramatically different results in the alternate timeline than in OTL. For instance, in the Worldwar series, the 1964 election produced a landslide Republicanvictory, whereas the historical 1964 election produced a landslide Democratic victory. However, both took place on November 3, 1964, with the Electoral College voting on December 14 of that same year.

In "Vilcabamba]," Turtledove writes of a future United States in which the electoral system has broken down. The occupation of much of the country by the [[Krolp results in the permanent suspension of Presidential elections, with the Presidency becoming a hereditary autocracy passed by primogeniture among the Moffat family, until the United States is conquered totally and formally after several decades.