The President and Vice President Office of the

The President and Vice President

Office of the President How does a citizen become president? The president heads the executive branch of the national government. The U. S. Constitution lists only three rules for being president. 1. president must be at least 35 years old. 2. He or she must be a native-born American citizen. 3. He or she must have lived in the United States for at least 14 years.

Characteristics of Presidents • • • each has been male. All but one have been Protestant Christians. Most have had a college education. Many were lawyers. Most came from states with large populations. • In 1960, John F. Kennedy became the first Roman Catholic elected as president. • In 2008, Barack Obama became the first African American to be elected president. • 2016, First female to run for President. Hillary Clinton

Electing a President Every four years, the nation elects a president. • take place in years that can be divided by the number four. • (For example, 2004, 2008, and 2012 are all election years. ) the president is not chosen directly by voters. Instead, he or she is elected by a group called the Electoral College. Each state and the District of Columbia have a certain number of electors. Electors - person appointed to vote in presidential elections for president or vice president The number of electoral votes is equal to the total number of senators and representatives a state has. • The District of Columbia also has three of them. As a result, there are 538 members of the Electoral College. • 435 House Members + 100 Senators + 3 Washington D. C. = 538 • • •

Term of Office Presidents serve four-year terms. • At first, the Constitution did not limit the number of terms a president could serve. The nation’s first president, George Washington, served for two terms. He then refused to run for a third term. Following this example, no president served more than two terms until 1940. In 1940, Franklin D. Roosevelt broke with tradition to run for a third term. He won that year and again in 1944. • Some people worried that a person could hold too much power if there were no term limits. • 22 nd Amendment in 1951 - limits a president to two elected terms in office. • a person may serve almost 10 years if he or she becomes president with less than two years remaining in the term of the previous president.

Salary Benefits The president is paid $400, 000 per year. • also receives some money for personal costs and for travel. • lives and works in the White House. • staff of more than 80 people takes care of the president’s family. • has use of Camp David. This is an estate in the Catoctin Mountains of Maryland. • Presidents travel with a fleet of special cars, helicopters, and airplanes. For long trips, the president uses Air Force One, a specially equipped jet.

Vice President The Vice President is elected with the president on the same ticket • The same 3 rules for becoming vice president are the same as those for the presidency. The Constitution gives little power to the vice president. • Article I states that the vice president shall preside over, or oversee, the Senate • can vote only in case of a tie. • Vice President becomes president if the president dies, is removed from office, falls seriously ill, or resigns.

The Presidential Succession Act • lists the line of succession after the vice president. • A line of succession is the order in which officials are expected to succeed, or come next, to an office.

25 th Amendment • ratified in 1967. • 25 th Amendment makes it clear that if the president dies or leaves office, the vice president becomes president. • Also says the new president should choose a new vice president with the help of Congress. • The process has two steps. • First, the new president names someone to the office. • Second, both the Senate and the House of Representatives must then vote to approve this choice.