The United States has a complex system of elections that involves several steps and rules. Here are the key features of the U.S. election system:

• Primary Elections and Caucuses: Candidates from the two main political parties, the Democrats and the Republicans, begin their campaign trails. They set up their country to rally for support and to fundraise for their campaigns. Candidates from each political party campaign through the country to win the favor of their party members. Primaries and caucuses are two ways that people help states and political parties choose presidential nominees. Primaries are organized by state and local authorities using a secret ballot to cast votes for hopeful presidential candidates from each of the major parties. Caucuses are private events organized by political parties themselves. Here, voters decide publicly which candidate they prefer. Afterwards, organizers count the votes and calculate how many delegates each candidate receives.

• National Conventions: Political parties hold national conventions to select presidential and vice-presidential nominees. The nominees campaign throughout the country to win the support of the general population.

• General Election: People in every state across the country vote for one President and Vice President. When Americans go to the polls in November, they will select their favorite presidential candidate and their running mate. When people cast their vote, they are actually voting for a group of people called electors. Except in the states of Maine and Nebraska, if a candidate receives the majority of the votes from the people of a state, then the candidate will receive all electoral votes of that state. The presidential nominee with the most electoral votes becomes the President of the United States.

• Electoral College: The Electoral College decides who will be elected president and vice president of the U.S. Each state gets a certain number of electors based on its representation in Congress. There are a total of 538 electors selected according to each state’s policy. Each elector casts one vote following the general election, and the candidate with the most electoral votes becomes the President of the United States. Maine and Nebraska are the exceptions because they have a proportional system.

The U.S. election system is governed by specific laws and rules that shape the actual voting process and determine who is eligible to vote. These laws and rules are created by the individual states, but the federal government can challenge and sometimes overrule state election policies that it considers unconstitutional.