1 Choosing our president is a long process. When men wrote our constitution they wanted to be sure that the person who led our country would be qualified. They put together a unique way of choosing the president, starting with the following rules:
A person must be a native-born citizen of the United States.
They must be at least thirty-five years of age.
They must have been a resident of the United States for at least fourteen years.
A presidential election must be held every four years.
2 A president may serve only two terms in office. It was not always this way. Franklin D. Roosevelt won the presidency four times. This worried some people. In 1951, the Twenty-Second Amendment to our constitution passed. Now, presidents can only serve for eight years.
3 A qualified person declares their intent to run for president and becomes a candidate. Then, they try to win a nomination in a party by campaigning. In our country, there are two main parties, Republican and Democratic. Although there are other parties, these two groups lead our system.
4 To win a nomination, the candidates take part in caucuses and primaries. These events choose delegates. Delegates are people who place a vote for a candidate at a convention.
