US elections 2024 may cost at least $15.9 bn

LAHORE: This year’s spending to elect the American President and members of the Congress will hit at least $15.9 billion, roughly equivalent to Pakistan’s Rs 4.42 trillion, “CNN reported a few days ago.

By the way, the total spending figure for the American elections in 2024 is about 52 per cent of what Pakistan earned through its exports in 2023-24!

Quoting the Washington DC-based “Open Secrets,” a nonpartisan organization that tracks money involved in American politics, the 44-year-old US media house said: “Helping to drive up the price tag: blistering spending by outside groups, including deep-pocketed super PACs aiding Republicans. Outside spending – largely through independent expenditures such as advertising, mailings, canvassing and other activities to boost specific candidates – has reached roughly $2.6 billion. That’s nearly $1 billion more than groups like these spent at this point in the 2020 election, the analysis found.”

Research shows that if the November 5, 2024, American Presidential election matchup between incumbent US Vice President, Kamala Harris, and former President, Donald Trump, hits the $15.9 billion figure, it would be the nation’s most expensive federal election ever, costlier than the 2020 ballot exercise, which according to the “BBC,” had cost almost $14 billion.

The “BBC” maintains: “The winner is not the person who gets the most votes across the country. Instead, both candidates compete to win contests held across the 50 states. Each state has a certain number of so-called Electoral College votes partly based on population. There are a total of 538 up for grabs, and the winner is the candidate that wins 270 or more. All but two states have a winner-takes-all rule, so whichever candidate wins the highest number of votes is awarded all of the state’s Electoral College votes. Most states lean heavily towards one party or the other, so the focus is usually on a dozen or so states where either of them could win. These are known as the battle ground or swing states. It is possible for a candidate to win the most votes nationally - like Hillary Clinton did in 2016 - but still be defeated by the Electoral College.”

The seven swing states playing a decisive role in the final election result are Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. The British broadcaster adds: “The Democrats are the liberal political party, with an agenda defined largely by its push for civil rights, a broad social safety net and measures to address climate change. The Republicans are the conservative political party in the US. Also known as the GOP, or the Grand Old Party, it has stood for lower taxes, shrinking the size of the government, gun rights and tighter restrictions on immigration and abortion.”