While most voters know their preferred presidential candidate, many still tune into debates to see how well that candidate holds up under the spotlight. But a good or bad performance isn’t enough to change the outcome of a race. That’s why campaigns continue to hon their messages and turn out their followers in battleground states.
In 2024, more than 155 million Americans voted. That’s the second largest total vote in history. Electoral votes are awarded to the candidate who receives the majority of state ballots. The winner of the electoral college votes then becomes president.
During the election of 1824, the Democratic-Republicans dominated the political landscape. The Federalist Party had died out and sectional differences over slavery had been temporarily settled by the Missouri Compromise of 1820. Candidates were chosen through private letters and meetings between leaders of the two factions. Federalists favored John Quincy Adams, Henry Clay and Oliver Ellsworth; Democratic-Republicans supported Thomas Jefferson, John C. Calhoun and Andrew Jackson.
Although they may not always agree with their assigned party, delegates must follow party rules in casting their votes for a candidate for president. These rules determine how the delegates must vote if their assigned presidential candidate withdraws from the race, whether they can vote for a different party’s nominee and how long they must wait to cast their votes. In the 1950s, one Democrat, Preston Parks, broke with his party’s nomination of Harry Truman and voted for Strom Thurmond of the States’ Rights Party. Parks later apologized for his actions and changed his vote to Truman.
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