5 Minute Guide: US Election 2008

US presidential elections are held every four years - election day is always the Tuesday following the first Monday in November. In most countries, campaigning takes just a few weeks. In the United States it drags on for almost two years - and that's because of the way the electoral system works.

The primaries

Selecting the presidential candidate isn't down to a group of party activists - but ordinary voters. Beginning in the January of election year, each state holds a primary election or caucus to determine its support.

Traditionally - Iowa and New Hampshire have held the first such votes.

Iowa holds a caucus - a rather complicated and arcane affair, where party members gather in small groups and vote by a lengthy process of elimination until one candidate emerges the winner.

New Hampshire's constitution declares it must hold the first primary in the nation. Unlike most other states, independents - not just registered party members - can vote in a party's primary. Because it's the first real popular test, candidates take to the streets, meeting voters, canvassing endlessly and holding local 'Town Hall' meetings. If an underdog does well here - like Bill Clinton in 1992 - it can prove the making of their campaign. Do badly - and it's hard to recover.

This time around other states have been seeking more clout in the election process - pushing their primary days up the calendar. This is known as 'Frontloading' - so instead of stretching right through to July, most primaries are now concentrated in February and March.

It means candidates won't be able to ignore states which used to vote much later - but they will be forced to spend more, and campaign earlier - to reach their nationwide audience.

The party convention

Confusingly, people who take part in primaries and caucuses don't vote directly for a candidate - but for delegates to each party's nominating convention.

These conventions are held in late summer - this year the Democrats are in Denver, Colorado and the Republicans a few days later in St Paul, Minnesota. Along with the delegates from each state, equipped, of course, with the requisite banners and balloons - there are 'super delegates' - like State Governors and members of Congress.

A candidate with a majority of support at the convention wins the nomination. Nowadays of course, it's all cut and dried well before the event itself. The presidential candidate then picks his or her vice-presidential running mate.

The election campaign

Instead of fighting between themselves over the party nomination, Republicans and Democrats now rally behind their official candidate in a huge spending and campaigning blitz over the next two months.

Candidates zig-zag the country, sometimes visiting four or five states in a single day, an exhausting marathon. Vast sums are spent on TV advertising - despite campaign finance reforms which tried to restrict spending, this time the whole process could cost more than a billion dollars.

A series of debates are also held between the presidential and vice-presidential candidates - and broadcast on national television and radio. Independent candidates - like Ralph Nader - often complain that the rules are controlled by the two main parties - and the debates are anything but spontaneous.

Most campaigning is concentrated on a handful of key 'battleground states' where the polls are closest.

Election day

Thanks to exit polls and the increase in early and electronic voting - estimated results of the popular vote begin to emerge almost as soon as the polls are closed.

But that doesn't mean it's clear who's won.

In yet another confusing twist, the president is not chosen by a nationwide popular vote - but delegates to what's called the Electoral College. The number of College votes each state gets depends on the size of its representation in Congress. In most states - the candidate who's won the popular vote there gets all of its College votes, apart from Nevada and Maine, which divide them on a proportional basis.

That means a candidate could win the popular vote - but fail to become president. In 2000, Al Gore won a majority of votes nationwide, but George Bush beat him in the electoral college vote, thanks, of course, to a controversial recount in the state of Florida.

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