Last updated on: 3/5/2009 9:06:00 AM PST

About US Presidential Elections   Every US President since 1852 has been either a Republican or a Democrat. Incumbents have run in 30 of the 55 presidential elections in US history. The incumbent won 20 times and lost 10 times. Presidential elections take place on Election Day- the Tuesday after the first Monday in November. However, the President does not take office until noon on January 20 of the following year. As of Nov. 2006, the Democratic Party had over 8.7 million more registered members than the Republican Party. Presidential caucuses tend to attract no more than 10 percent of the eligible voters while presidential primaries often get 20 percent or more. The Democrats spent $250 million and the Republicans spent $240 million in the 2004 presidential election. A presidential candidate has won the election despite losing the popular vote four times in US history: 1824, 1876, 1888, and 2000. In 1824, John Quincy Adams lost both the popular and the electoral vote, but the House of Representatives decided the outcome of the election because his opponent failed to secure a majority of electoral votes. Gerald Ford was the only person to serve as both President and Vice President without being elected to either office. Democrats first used the donkey as a party symbol when Andrew Jackson ran for president in 1828. Thomas Nast, a famous political cartoonist, later popularized the symbol in an 1870 Harper's Weekly political cartoon featuring the Democratic donkey kicking an elephant, which became the symbol of the Republican party. The Republican Party has been known as the "G.O.P." which today is a reference to "Grand Old Party"; but in 1875, when the term was first used, G.O.P. referenced "Gallant Old Party." There have been 538 electoral votes in each presidential election since 1960. A candidate must win a majority of those votes (270) to win the election. Of the Democratic and Republican candidates who entered the 2008 presidential race, Mike Gravel, aged 77, is the oldest candidate and Barack Obama is the youngest candidate at age 46.

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