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license its doctors and other professionals, to provide police protection
for its citizens and to maintain its roads.
In actual practice, and in line with the American tradition of
keeping government as close to the people as possible, the states
delegate many of these powers to their political subdivisions -
counties, cities, towns and villages. Thus, at the lowest political level,
residents of small American communities elect village trustees to run
their police and fire departments, and elect a board of education to run
their schools. On the county level, voters elect executives who are
responsible for roads, parks, libraries, sewage and other services, and
elect or appoint judges for the courts. The citizens of each state also
elect a governor and members of the state legislature.
In addition to the 50 states and the District of Columbia, citizens
of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, the Commonwealth of the
Northern Mariana Islands, Guam, the Virgin Islands and American
Samoa vote in federal elections. United States possessions include the
Pacific Islands of Wake, Midway, Jarvis, Howland, Baker, Johnston
Atoll and Kingman Reef. The United States administers the Republic
of Palau under United Nations auspices. Two entities, The Federated
States of Micronesia and the Republic of the Marshall Islands, have
become sovereign self-governing states in free association with the
United States.
Under the Constitution, the federal government is divided into
three branches, each chosen in a different manner, each able to check
and balance the others.
The executive branch is headed by the president, who, together
with the vice president, is chosen in nationwide elections every four
years (in every year divisible by four). The elective process for a US
president is unique. Americans vote for slates of presidential electors
equal to the number of senators and representatives each state has in
Congress (a total of 535 persons). The candidate with the highest
number of votes in each state wins all the electoral votes of that state.
The presidential candidate needs 270 electoral votes to be elected; if
no candidate has a majority, the House of Representatives makes the
decision. (In all other state and local elections, voters cast their votes
directly for the candidate or referendum on that particular ballot.) Any
natural-born American who is 35 years old or older may be elected to
this office. The president proposes bills to Congress, enforces federal
laws, serves as commander-in-chief of the armed forces and, with the
approval of the Senate, makes treaties and appoints federal judges,