How does the presidential election process work?

The election process is really two parts: Primarys and General Election ---------- PRIMARIES The major political parties (Republican and Democrat) must select who they want to represent their party in the election (in 2004, George Bush(R) and John Kerry (D) won. This year, it looks like John McCain (R) and either Hillary Clinton (D) or Barak Obama (D) will win. Its quite a mess to try and explain, but basically it is up to the national party leadership to decide. The national party often delegates this responsibility down to the states. This is why you see each state holding Primaries or Caucuses at different times. -------------- GENERAL ELECTION The winner from each party (along with anyone else who files the necessary paperwork to run) will be put on the ballot in each state in the general election. Each state has an assigned number of Electoral Votes based on population (actually it is based on number of representatives in Congress -- so every state will have at least 3 votes, ...  more

The election process is really two parts: Primarys and General Election ---------- PRIMARIES The major political parties (Republican and Democrat) must select who they want to represent their party in the election (in 2004, George Bush(R) and John Kerry (D) won. This year, it looks like John McCain (R) and either Hillary Clinton (D) or Barak Obama (D) will win. Its quite a mess to try and explain, but basically it is up to the national party leadership to decide. The national party often delegates this responsibility down to the states. This is why you see each state holding Primaries or Caucuses at different times. -------------- GENERAL ELECTION The winner from each party (along with anyone else who files the necessary paperwork to run) will be put on the ballot in each state in the general election.  more