Every 4 years we vote for President/Vice President. No true Parlamentary elections here...you are free to vote for a President of one party and local representatives of another...

The Prez and Vice-Prez run as a team. The only rule that is unusual is that they must be from different States... (ie. Bush from Texas, Cheney from Wyoming vs. Gore from Space and Lieberman from Atlantis.)

That is the only National Referendum that we Americans vote on. But in reality, All of it is completely controlled by State (not Federal) law...

Now to complicate the issue... Even the President/Vice President election is a matter of State (not National Law)... Each state has the right to determine its own method of selecting electors to the Electoral College which ultimately selects the Prez/Vice-Prez team. There is no law which states that every State must allow its voters to participate in the Presidential Referendum. If they wanted, a particular state could decide that Mickey Mouse could decide it's electors appointed to vote in the electoral college!

So to summarize: In reality: THERE ARE NO FEDERAL ELECTIONS IN THE USA. It's a hybrid parlamentary system...Very convaluted...No single human could ever completely control it. (I tried once and failed...Now I've settled for fixing the World Series).

Tom...Is this not a more substantive description?

Just kidding buddy.