Americans choose their president on the ______.

On November the second, Americans will choose a president and a vice president. They will elect members of Congress and state and local officials. And they will decide local measures.
   Voters must be at least eighteen. The voting age used to be twenty-one years old, until the Constitution was changed in nineteen seventy-one.
   Here is another fact. Until nineteen twenty, the Constitution did not permit women to vote. Today women vote at higher rates than men in national elections. The Census Bureau says this has been true for more than twenty years.
   Still, not all adults have the right to vote. Most of the states require voters not to have been found guilty of a major crime. Voter’s must also be American citizens. And they must be registered to vote in the area where they live. Their names must appear on a local election list.
   In many states, a person must register at least two to four weeks before an election. Voters do not have to register again unless they move to a different area or do not vote in several elections.
   On Election Day, people usually vote in a school or other public buildings near their homes. Voting is done by secret ballots. But local election officials decide what kind of voting equipment is used.
   Paper-and-pencil ballots are rare these days. But many systems still do use paper. Voters mark their choices on the ballot and a computer counts the votes. Some places use machines to record votes when a person moves a lever next to the name of a candidate. These kinds of machines are old and are slowly being replaced.