I. Congress II.

National level elections The United States and Vietnam, as two distinct countries with dissimilar institutions, understandably possess many similarities as well as differences in the electoral system. Both countries apply the system of universal adult franchise, which grants the voting right to every citizen aged eighteen and above regardless of their race, gender, or wealth. On the national level, the heads of state in the two countries are indirectly elected, that is, voters do not choose a specific presidential candidate themselves but select electors who represent them to vote for the candidate. Meanwhile, both houses of congress are elected through direct popular elections in which votes are cast for an individual candidate. However, national elections in the United States and Vietnam vary significantly in terms of number of candidates elected, candidate requirements and electoral process. All of these differences would be discussed thoroughly in the following sections. 1. National elections in the United States In the United States government, the legislative and executive branches are totally independent to each other; therefore, there are two separated national elections: one for the bicameral congress and the other for the president, both of them officially take place on the same day called Election Day. Election Day is fixed by law on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November every even-numbered year. 1.1. Elections of the United States Congress 1.1.1. Senate election Before 1913, senators were chosen by their state legislatures, not the people. The 17th Amendment to the Constitution states that senators are to be elected by the people they represent. According to Article I, Section 3 of the Constitution of the United States, each state is represented by two senators, regardless of its population. Senators serve terms of six years, after that they are up for re-election. It is also noteworthy that the members of the Senate are divided into three groups and every two years approximately one-third of the seats are re-elected. The staggering of terms has been arranged such that both seats from a given state are not contested in the same general election, except when a mid-term vacancy is being filled.

In order to be elected to the Senate, there are some requirements a candidate must meet. These qualifications are established in Article I, Section 3 of the Constitution: A candidate must be at least 30 years old by the time he or she takes the oath of office, a citizen of the U.S. for at least 9 years and a resident of the state from which he or she is elected. Elections to the Senate are held on the Election Day, coinciding with elections for the House of Representatives. Senators are elected by their state as a whole. In many states, a primary election is held several months before the November general election for the Republican and Democratic parties to decide which candidates to be listed on the ballot. These candidates can come from either major political parties or minor parties or they can be independent. As a rule, major political party candidates are automatically placed on their state's primary ballot while minor party candidates are chosen by their party's guidelines and independent candidates nominate themselves. Ballot access rules for independent candidates vary from state to state, though a petition with a certain number of voters signatures is often required. On the Election Day, the winner is the candidate who receives a plurality of the popular vote, that is, the one who has more popular votes than any other candidates. In some states, if no candidate wins a majority, another election will be held, however this time only the two candidates with the highest number of votes are listed on the ballot. The candidate who receives the most votes wins the election. 1.1.2. House of Representative election The House of Representatives has a fixed number of 435 members who serve for two years and then are up for reelection. Since representation in the House is based on a state's population, every ten years the U.S. Bureau of the Census counts how many people live in each state of the United States. Each state is broken down into congressional districts and there is one representative for each district. Every state has at least one congressional district. In order to be elected to the House of Representatives, there are some requirements a candidate must meet. These qualifications are established in Article I, Section 2 of the Constitution. A candidate must be at least 25 years old by the time he or she takes the

oath of office, a citizen of the U.S. for at least 7 years and a resident of the state from which they are elected. Elections for representatives are held in every even-numbered year on Election Day. Since 1967, Federal law has required that House Members be elected from singlemember-districts by plurality voting. Similar to election in the Senate, many states hold primary elections to decide which candidates will be on the ballot in the November general election. The candidate who receives the most votes wins the election. The term of a member chosen in a special election usually begins the next day, or as soon as the results are certified. 1.2. Elections of the United States President According to the United States Constitution, a presidential election is to be held once every fourth year. The Election Day occurs on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November, coinciding with the general elections of various other federal, states and local races. The candidates running in the presidential election must be at least 35 years of age, they must be native-born citizens of the United States, and they must have been residents of the U.S. for at least 14 years. Besides, a person cannot be elected to a third term as President. The process of electing a President and Vice-President begins long before Election Day and can be roughly divided into five stages. First of all, candidates from both major and minor political parties and independent candidates begin to raise money and campaign at least one year in advance of the general presidential election. The second stage, the nominating process, officially begins with the first state primaries and caucuses, which usually occur in the month of February of the election year. In order to officially represent a political party, a candidate must be nominated by that party. It is at these local events that voters are given their first chance to participate in electing the nations next President. There are many factors that influence who will ultimately become the candidate for a party. The publics perception of the candidates is influenced by such things as media reports, public opinion polls, candidate preference surveys, and advertising. The spring of an election year is characterized by intense campaigning for primaries and caucuses all over the nation. The primary election process ends with the start of

national conventions of the political parties, which is the third stage in a presidential election. Once at the national party conventions, the delegates from the states cast votes for the person who will represent the political party in the November general election. In order to secure a partys nomination, a candidate must receive a majority of the votes from the delegates. Once the candidates from the political parties have been nominated and chosen, the presidential election processes to the next stage when the candidates from the political parties compete directly with each other. These candidates travel throughout the country, making public appearance and giving speeches. The parties and the candidates use media advertising, direct mailings, telephone campaigns, and other means to persuade the voters to choose one candidate over the others. The candidates campaigns continue until Election Day, when the nation finally votes for its President. In this stage, every citizen of legal age (who has taken the steps necessary in his/her state to meet the voting requirements, such as registering to vote) has an opportunity to vote. However, the President is not chosen by direct popular vote. The Constitution requires that a process known as the Electoral College ultimately decides who will win the general election. The Electoral College is a method of indirect popular election of the President of the United States. Voters in each state actually cast a vote for a block of electors who are pledged to vote for a particular candidate. These electors, in turn, vote for the presidential candidate. The number of electors for each state equals to the number of its Senators and Representatives in the U.S. Congress. Additionally, Washington, D.C. is given a number of electors equal to the number held by the smallest state. U.S. territories are not represented in the Electoral College. After Election Day, on the first Monday after the second Wednesday in December, these electors assemble in their state capitals, cast their ballots, and officially select the future President of the United States. Legally, the electors may vote for someone other than the candidate for whom they were pledged to vote. This phenomenon is known as the "unfaithful" or "faithless" elector. Generally, this does not happen. Therefore, the candidate who receives the most popular votes in a state at the general election will be the candidate for whom the electors later cast their votes. The candidate who wins a plurality of votes in a state is awarded all of that states Electoral College votes. This is known as the winner-take-all rule, which is followed by most states, except for Maine and

Nebraska. The two states instead give two electoral votes to the statewide winner and one electoral vote to the winner of each Congressional district. The votes of the electors are then sent to Congress where the President of the Senate opens the certificates, and counts the votes. This takes place on January 6, unless that date falls on a Sunday. In that case, the votes are counted on the next day. An absolute majority is necessary to prevail in the presidential and the vice presidential elections, that is, half the total plus one electoral votes are required. With 538 Electors, a candidate must receive at least 270 votes to be elected to the office of President or Vice President. Should no presidential candidate receive an absolute majority, the House of Representatives determines who the next president will be. Each state may cast one vote and an absolute majority is needed to win. Similarly, the Senate decides who the next Vice President will be if there is no absolute majority after the Electoral College vote. Elections have been decided by Congress in the past. The House of Representatives elected Thomas Jefferson president in the election of 1800 when the Electoral College vote resulted in a tie. When the Electoral College vote was so split that none of the candidates received an absolute majority in the election of 1824 the House elected John Quincy Adams President. Richard Johnson was elected Vice President by the Senate when he failed to receive an absolute majority of electoral votes in the election of 1836. The President-elect and Vice President-elect take the oath of office and are inaugurated two weeks later, on January 20th. 2. National elections in Vietnam Elections for the National Assembly Deputies and President in Vietnam do not occur on the same day as they are in the United States. Instead, every five years the National Assembly Deputies are elected first by the people in the country to represent them to vote for the heads of state in