The first debate of the US Presidential Election took place in the early hours of the morning and, depending on who they support, people in the USA will be saying their man 'won'.
But, how do you get to that point and where does the election process go from here? Have a look at the video at the top of the article from www.usa.gov explaining how you get to live in the White House.
The debates are just one part of the puzzle and you can see for yourself there is a lot of talking and campaigning to go before Trump versus Biden is over.
The US presidential election process follows a typical cycle:
- Spring of the year before an election – Candidates announce their intentions to run.
- Summer of the year before an election through spring of the election year – Primary and caucus debates take place.
- January to June of election year – States and parties hold primaries and caucuses.
- July to early September – Parties hold nominating conventions to choose their candidates.
- September and October – Candidates participate in presidential debates.
- Early November – Election Day
- December – Electors cast their votes in the Electoral College.
- Early January of the next calendar year – Congress counts the electoral votes.
- January 20 – Inauguration Day
The whole system is very different to what we have in Ireland and you will hear a lot about the Electoral College in the months ahead.
Under the US system a state's electoral college votes, which are apportioned by population, are given to the candidate that wins that state.
California has the most electors with 55, but some lowly populated states like Alaska only have three.
So, if a candidate won the vote in California, they would be awarded all of the state's 55 electoral college votes.
The candidate who receives a majority of the 538 electoral votes available, or 270, wins the presidency.
