After the party conventions, candidates from each political party begin campaigning and traveling across the country. They participate in televised presidential debates, where they answer questions about their positions and policies. In order to be eligible for the debates, a candidate must have enough support from voters to win their party’s nomination.
Ahead of the election, polls showed Harris and Trump neck-and-neck nationally and in many states. But once ballots were counted, Trump emerged victorious in battleground or swing states, and he won the Electoral College vote by a wide margin.
The president is elected by the Electoral College, which consists of 538 members (all 435 House seats + 100 Senate seats + 3 for Washington DC). Each state gets a certain number of electors based on its population, with most states leaning heavily one way or another. Voting is done through either primaries or caucuses. During a primary, voters choose who they want to run for the presidency through a secret ballot. A winner is then chosen and the delegates to the party’s national convention are selected.
In caucuses, voters show their preference for a candidate through an organized event, often involving discussions and debate. These events are usually held in January and February of the election year. The results from these events determine the delegates who will go to the national convention and the final nominee for each party. In most cases, the Democratic and Republican parties select their presidential candidates from a group of delegates.