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Added on the 27/05/2014 18:07:02 - Copyright : Euronews EN
Presidential campaigns today seem to be massive, well-oiled machines. But that doesn't mean American election history is without its oddities. For example, the Farmers Almanac says President Zachary Taylor never, ever voted. He kept his political beliefs a secret all the way up until his 1848 election. According to The Famer's Almanac, George Washington’s entire campaign budget for his 1758 election to the House of Burgesses was spent on liquor. Borrowing an English tradition, Washington spent 50 British pounds on 160 gallons of alcohol that was given to 390 voters. Originally, only white male American property owners could vote in US elections. But the 1920 Nineteenth Amendment gave women the right to vote, too. According to the Farmer's Almanac, since 1964, more women voters have gone to the polls than male voters during presidential election years.
To vote in a presidential election, you need to be an American citizen, be at least 18 years old on Election Day, and vote in the state in which you reside. Candidates tend to focus their campaigns on 'swing states,' where candidates from both parties have won in recent elections. The party with the most seats in each house gets the top leadership positions. That party has an enormous influence on which laws are considered and voted on.
Between COVID-19 and various efforts across the country to make it downright difficult to vote, the challenges of voting are becoming increasingly obvious. Following the lead of major retails, US tech giants like Twitter and Salesforce are giving their employees Election Day off in order to vote. According to Business Insider, rideshare company Uber is giving employees the day off as part of their 'Get Out the Vote' effort. Uber is providing links to voter registration sites through its app, and will assist in getting voters to the polls on election day. Other companies, like Apple and Facebook, are encouraging employees to volunteer to be poll workers.
Hundreds gather outside the Russian embassy in Berlin to protest against Russia's invasion in Ukraine on the last day of a presidential election guaranteed to see Vladimir Putin win another six-year term. IMAGES
Voters cast their ballots at a polling station in the Russian capital Moscow, on the second day of a three-day presidential election set to hand veteran leader Vladimir Putin another six years in power. Victory will allow the former KGB agent to stay in the Kremlin until at least 2030, longer than any Russian leader since Catherine the Great in the eighteenth century and eclipsing Soviet leader Joseph Stalin. IMAGES
A polling station in Prague opens on the second day of Czech presidential run-off election, in which retired NATO general Petr Pavel is expected to beat the billionaire former prime minister Andrej Babis. IMAGES
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