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ELECTIONS IN THE UNITED STATES
The United States has a federal government, with elected officials at federal
(national), state and local level. On a national level, the head of state, the
President, is elected indirectly by the people, through electors of an electoral
college. In modern times, the electors virtually always vote with the popular
vote of their state. All members of the federal legislature, Congress, are
directly elected. There are many elected offices at state level, each state
having at least an elective governor and legislature. There are also elected
offices at local level, in counties and cities. It is estimated that across the
whole country, over one million elected offices are filled in every electoral
cycle.
The regulation of elections is specified by both federal and state law. The
United States Constitution defines (to a basic extent) how federal elections are
held, in Article One and Article Two and various amendments. State law regulates
most aspects of electoral law, including primaries, the eligibility of voters
(beyond the basic constitutional definition), the running of each state's
electoral college, and the running of state and local elections. The financing
of elections has always been controversial, due to the fact that private sources
of finance make up substantial amounts of campaign contributions, especially in
federal elections. Voluntary public funding for candidates willing to accept
spending limits was introduced in 1974 for presidential primaries and elections.
The Federal Elections Commission, created in 1975 by the 1974 amendment of the
Federal Election Campaign Act (1971) has the responsibility to disclose campaign
finance information, to enforce the provisions of the law such as the limits and
prohibitions on contributions, and to oversee the public funding of U.S.
presidential elections. The federal government has also been involved in
attempts to increase voter turnout, by measures such as the National Voter
Registration Act of 1993.
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