Basics
The election of the President and the Vice President of the United States is an indirect vote in which citizens cast ballots for a slate of members of the U.S. Electoral College; these electors in turn directly elect the President and Vice President.
_________________________________________________________________________________________
There are major parts of the election
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
ELECTORAL COLLEGE
The election of the President and the Vice President of the United States is an indirect vote in which citizens cast ballots for a slate of members of the U.S. Electoral College; these electors in turn directly elect the President and Vice President.
_________________________________________________________________________________________
There are major parts of the election
- Primary Elections: In each state the parties either have a primary election or a caucuses election. For example, Florida has a primary election where all voters of a particular party vote for the candidate they want.
- A Caucuses election is a meeting of members or leaders of a political party to make plans, choose candidates, or decide how to vote. For example, Iowa has a Caucuses election.
- National Party Conventions: Which is where the Democrats an Republicans nominate their president formally.
- The General (or Popular) Election: All citizens vote for whoever they chose despite whatever party you are or the candidates.
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
ELECTORAL COLLEGE
- In the Electoral College system, each state gets a certain number of electors, based on each state's total number of representation in Congress. Each elector gets one electoral vote.
- For example, a large state like California gets 54 electoral votes, while Rhode Island gets only four. All together, there are 538 Electoral votes.
- In December (following the general election), the electors cast their votes. When the votes are counted on January 6th, the Presidential candidate that gets more than half (270) wins the election.