Elections 101 - How the President gets elected

Each year in America there are over 80,000 elections, the most important of which is the national election for President, held every four years. The process for a national election lasts nearly a year, taking up 25% of the standing president's time in power.

What's unique about the Presidential election is that the Electoral College ultimately decides the winner of the presidency, not the popular vote . You'll read more about this later, but what you should know is that the United States has an indirect system of voting which was originally set up to ensure a system of checks and balances for our government, and while there are very few examples of the Electoral College going against the popular vote, know that it is possible for a candidate to win the popular vote but not the presidency because of the way the Electoral College is set up. The 2000 general election is a clear example of this. The popular vote for Al Gore was 50,996,116 while George Bush retained 50,456,169 of the popular vote. President Bush won the election in the Electoral College with a total of 271 delegates, while Al Gore had only 266.

We simplified, maybe even too much for you, the electoral process, so you can get your basics on.