MOSCOW, November 4 (RIA Novosti) — Americans will go to the polls on Tuesday to vote for members of Congress, senators and governors across the country in what is called midterm elections as they occur midway between the sitting president's four-year term.
The vote will determine which of the two US political parties is in control of Congress, a federal legislative body that has a great weight in foreign policy decision-making.
The US electoral law sets the Election Day for both houses of Congress on the Tuesday after the first Monday in November on even-numbered years, as established by the Congress in 1845. A total of 435 seats in the House of Representatives and 36 seats in the Senate will be up for grabs this year.
Under the US Constitution, "all legislative powers shall be vested in a Congress of the United States, which shall consist of a Senate and a House of Representatives."
The House of Representatives is a body of national representation, whose 435 members are elected for two years. The seats are distributed between congressmen and congresswomen in proportion to the population of every state, according to the US census.
The greatest representation belongs presently to California, which has 53 seats. Texas has 36, New York 27, Florida 27, and Pennsylvania 18.
Several sparsely populated states – Alaska, Vermont, Wyoming, Delaware, Montana, South Dakota and North Dakota – have one representative each.
The District of Columbia, Guam, the US Virgin Islands, American Samoa, the Northern Mariana Islands, and Puerto Rico elect one non-voting delegate each, who participate in debates and committee work.
According to the Constitution, "No person shall be a Representative who shall not have attained to the age of twenty-five years, and been seven years a citizen of the United States, and who shall not, when elected, be an inhabitant of that state in which he shall be chosen."
The Senate, which is the upper house of US Congress, serves as a body of state representation, with each state having two representatives irrespective of the population. Senators serve a six-year term each with terms staggered, so that one-third of the Senate is up for election every two years.
According to the US Constitution, "No person shall be a senator who shall not have attained to the age of thirty years, and been nine years a citizen of the United States, and who shall not, when elected, be an inhabitant of that state in which he shall be chosen."
Both houses are elected by a simple majority, with no minimum voter turnout.
Congress candidates are nominated by the Democratic and Republican party primaries. The legislation of several states authorizes non-alternative elections.
All citizens of the United States of 18 years of age or older, registered as voters, have the right to vote.
The federal legislation does not detail the procedures of registration and ballot. These matters are delegated to the states.
One can register as a voter when applying for a driver's license, by mail, or at a registrar or another office. Several states require that voters declare which political party they support during registration; this step is necessary for the organization of primaries. A federal voter register is not kept.
In the majority of states, voters must show an ID to receive ballot papers. Many states' legislation requires that voters come to the polling station in person for the first voting.
Alternative voting – by absentee ballot, mail, fax or email, and early voting – is allowed without specifying the reason in some states, while others require that a valid reason is submitted in writing.
In compliance with HAVA (Help America Vote Act), all polling stations must possess sophisticated voting and vote counting equipment since 2006. Some states, such as Oregon, allow voting only by mail.
