People with similar ideas about how a government should work join political parties to compete to be the nominee of that party for President. Party members choose the best candidate through a series of events called Primaries and Caucuses. The candidate who wins the most support from delegates becomes their party’s nominee. The presidential race culminates in November with voters choosing the President and Vice President by casting their votes in the Electoral College. The winner of the Electoral College needs to receive a majority — or 270 votes — in order to become the president.
Generally, each state gets the same number of electoral votes as it has seats in Congress, and there are 538 electoral votes. All but two states (Maine and Nebraska) use a “winner-takes-all” rule, whereby the person who receives the most votes in a state will receive all of that state’s electoral votes. Voters in these states, often referred to as battleground states, can make the difference between a victory and defeat.
In the past, polls have shown that Trump has been close to Harris in many of these states. But, when it comes to voting day, Trump has typically won these states with a larger margin than most polls have indicated.