READING AND SPEAKING: PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIONS IN THE USA

Read the text and make up a plan using key expressions. How are US Рresidents Chosen? Becoming president of the United States is no easy task. These days a candidate has to start running for president about two years before the actual election takes place. A President must be at least 35 years old, have lived within the US for 14 years and be a ‘natural-born citizen’. Under terms of the 22nd Amendment to the Constitution, no person can be elected President more than twice. The first step is raising enough money. Many potential candidates fail if they can't convince enough people or corporations to support their campaigns. About nine months before the actual election, a series of primary elections in the states of the country (primaries) are held to select delegates to attend a national presidential-nominating convention held in summer where the presidential and vice-presidential candidates for the party will be chosen. In both major parties, a simple majority of delegate votes is enough to win the nomination. A vice-presidential candidate is selected by the presidential nominee and routinely confirmed by convention delegates. The nominating national convention allows the candidate, his or her team, and the particular party to use the convention as a showcase of the candidate's abilities. As soon as the conventions are over, the candidates campaign for two or three months for the presidency. The Republican and the Democratic nominees meet with their advisers to map strategy. Staffs are enlarged and speak¬ing schedules are roughed out. Budgets are fixed. TV commercials are pro¬duced. Polls are taken to assess strengths and weaknesses. Special appeals are made to various voter segments—eth-nic, professional, religious, by age group, by income and by other measurements. Citizen groups are formed to attract independents and dissidents of the opposition party. Volun¬teers are sent out to distribute campaign literature, ring doorbells, make telephone calls, drum up rallies. At the same time, the presidential and vice-presidential nominees are crisscrossing the country by plane. The candidates address carefully staged meetings, hold news conferences and confer with local politicians. The major labor unions and big-city political organiza¬tions generally back the Democratic nominees. Republicans can count on the backing of much of business and industry. The actual election is held on the Tuesday after the first Monday in November in a year that must be divisible by four. The showdown comes on that day called Election Day. The candidate must win more popular votes than any other nominee in enough states and the District of Columbia to give him a majority. If he does all those things, he has won the right to the office of President of the United States. However the people don't directly elect the president. That's done by the electoral college. It's the method provided by the US Constitution to elect the president and the vice-president. When the founding fathers were creating a system to elect a president, they wanted to protect the country against "popular passions," and devised a system (based on ancient Roman and Greek models) that would allow a select group of (in those days) men to elect a president. At first, the electoral college had real power. But as the process became more democratic over the decades, the electoral college's role transformed into a largely ceremonial one. Now the college meets in early January after the general election. Each elector casts one vote for a presidential nominee and one vote for a vice-presidential nominee. The results are sent by registered mail to the president of the US Senate, who is the incumbent Vice President. Currently, a candidate needs 270 votes to win the election. If a candidate wins less than 270 votes, the election is thrown into the House of Representatives. Three times in the history of the US presidential elections candidates have won the popular vote but have not been elected president. The President-elect starts functioning as President the minute he is sworn in on inauguration day.