The
United States holds its
federal elections on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November. The
President of the United States is elected to a four-year term. Each of the 435 seats in the
United States House of Representatives are elected to two-year terms. The 100 members in the
United States Senate are elected to six-year terms, with one-third of them being renewed every two years.
Because of when these federal offices are up for election, the election years are commonly classified into the following three categories:
*
Presidential elections
A presidential election is the election of any head of state whose official title is President.
Elections by country
Albania
The president of Albania is elected by the Assembly of Albania who are elected by the Albanian public.
Chile
The pr ...
: Elections for the U.S. President are held every four years, coinciding with those for all 435 seats in the House of Representatives, and 33 or 34 of the 100 seats in the Senate.
*
Midterm elections: They occur two years after each presidential election. Elections are held for all 435 seats in the House of Representatives, and 33 or 34 seats in the Senate. As a result, the membership of these two legislative chambers changes near the midpoint of a president's four-year term of office
*
Off-year elections: These are elections during odd-numbered years. Only
special elections, if necessary, are held to fill vacant seats in the Senate and House of Representatives, usually either due to incumbents resigning or dying while in office.
The years in which elections are held for U.S. state and local offices vary between each jurisdiction. The vast majority of races held during off-year elections are at the city and local level, but many other city and local governments may instead hold their elections during even-numbered years to coincide with either the presidential or midterm elections.
List of elections by year
1788–1879
Each state originally set their own separate date for their congressional elections, whether in the even-numbered year before and in the odd-numbered year when a Congress convened. Before the
Twentieth Amendment to the United States Constitution was ratified in 1933, which fixed Congressional dates, the date on which a Congress usually began was in early March of the odd-numbered year, meaning that states could schedule congressional elections into January or February.
1880–1911
By 1880, every state had started to hold their regular U.S. House elections only during a single (even) year, with special elections only in odd years. Each state's regular senate elections continued to be held in either the even-numbered year before and in the odd-numbered year when a Congress convened.
1912–present
Starting in 1913, all regular U.S. Senate elections were held only during a single (even) year, with special elections only in odd years, coinciding with the U.S. House elections. The ratification of the
Seventeenth Amendment to the United States Constitution
The Seventeenth Amendment (Amendment XVII) to the United States Constitution established the direct election of United States senators in each state. The amendment supersedes Article I, Section 3, Clauses 1 and2 of the Constitution, under wh ...
established the
direct election
Direct election is a system of choosing political officeholders in which the voters directly cast ballots for the persons or political party that they desire to see elected. The method by which the winner or winners of a direct election are cho ...
of senators, instead of having them elected directly by
state legislature
A state legislature is a legislative branch or body of a political subdivision in a federal system.
Two federations literally use the term "state legislature":
* The legislative branches of each of the fifty state governments of the United Sta ...
s.
Other
External links
Election Statistics(by state within year) at the Office of the Clerk; als
herePresidential Elections
{{U.S. Elections by State