How democratic is the US election?

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The US elects its president on November 3rd. Should mean: If Donald Trump then receives fewer votes than Joe Biden, he has to leave the White House. But that's not what it means. The American electoral system is more complicated. And many say: less democratic.

Trump won four years ago, even though almost three million more people had voted for Hillary Clinton. How does it work? There are three problems.

Problem 1: The Electoral College

US citizens do not directly elect the president. Each state votes through a panel of electors. But the electoral-to-population ratio is not proportional, with smaller states being overrepresented for their role at all. And: In all states except Maine and Nebraska, the principle "The Winner-Takes-It-All" applies. Whichever presidential candidate receives more votes in a state wins all electors - regardless of the lead.

Julia Lange, DER SPIEGEL, documentary: "If Biden - similar to Hillary Clinton, who won in the state of California in 2016 by 30 percentage points ahead of Trump - if Biden wins this state, say, 40 percentage points ahead, then it will be Number of electoral votes received in that state will have no effect. It will still only receive the 55 delegate votes designated for that state. "

Problem 2: the gerrymandering

Every ten years the constituencies in the USA are redrawn. How - in most cases the ruling party decides. And she uses that for her own benefit. In the past decade, that was especially true of Republicans.

Julia Lange, DER SPIEGEL, documentary: "Gerrymandering ultimately turns a central democratic principle on its head. Because with gerrymandering, the voters no longer choose their MPs, but it is exactly the other way around. MPs ultimately elect themselves their voters. "

There are two ways of applying gerrymandering - constituency shifting. First the cracking.

Julia Lange, DER SPIEGEL, Documentation: "Let's imagine, for example, a constituency in which the Afro-American population makes the difference. What could the Republicans do? They could cut the constituency so that Afro-American quarters are no longer included. These would be different Electoral districts where the Republicans already have a solid majority. The votes would fizzle out and do no harm to the Republicans. "

It works the other way around with packing.

Julia Lange, DER SPIEGEL, Documentation:
"Alternatively, the Republicans could tailor a constituency so that African American neighborhoods are merged with Latin American and student neighborhoods. That would mean that the Democrats win a constituency with a very high vote lead, ultimately with one unnecessarily high vote advantage. These votes would, however, be missing elsewhere, namely in the neighboring constituencies, which could theoretically go to the Republicans. "

The gerrymandering affects the presidential election only indirectly. The state borders and thus the constituencies are clearly drawn. However, the parties use it in the elections of the parliaments in the individual states. And whoever wins a majority there can influence the course of the presidential election.

Problem 3: The low turnout

The voter turnout in the USA is generally low, four years ago it was around 60 percent. And state governments can make it difficult for individual groups of voters to vote. For example, by setting up strict rules for postal voting - in Corona times that can make a big difference. Trump has been criminalizing postal voting for months.

Donald Trump, US President:
" And there's been tremendous corruption, tremendous corruption on mail-in ballots." "There was enormous corruption, enormous corruption in postal votes."

More postal voting - more voting fraud? Is that correct?

Julia Lange, DER SPIEGEL, Documentation:
"Trump's claim is factually wrong. Numerous studies show that, from a statistical point of view, fraud in postal votes is negligible. In addition, it has not even been established that expanding postal votes per se would benefit one of the two major parties Numerous studies disprove that. "

Trump's statements have two goals. He hopes to reduce voter turnout by restricting postal voting. Voters with a democratic tendency, such as ethnic minorities and young voters, who avoid going to the polling stations more than older white Americans, could feel encouraged by the postal vote to cast their vote. So Trump's concern. A second reason:

Julia Lange, DER SPIEGEL, documentation: "In the end, he is arguing the groundwork for a possible election defeat in November. If he lost this autumn, he could claim that the postal votes had been manipulated anyway and ultimately simply refused to recognize the election result. "

The states also determine when and how their residents must register to vote - and how they must identify themselves locally. The problem: Around eleven percent of the total population do not have an official photo ID. This also often affects ethnic minorities. One reason: the fear of authorities. And Republicans are taking advantage of this fear this year by sending tens of thousands of volunteers to the polling stations.

Julia Lange: "The Republicans use a well-known narrative, namely the containment of electoral fraud, in order to ultimately lower the voter turnout and manipulate the election strategically in their favor."

Is that enough? In current polls, Trump is clearly behind his challenger Biden. Most recently he even brought a postponement of the election into play. It is not the President who has this power, but Congress. There has to be so much democracy.