election process????????????

How does everything work in terms of demo. and rep. in the election process?what do they mean and how does it work? obama and hilliary? who gets elected for what and how? Im younger and wanna know how this works..sorry if my question is weird! thanks once again---TOM---

Public Comments

1. It doesn't work! That is the problem.
2. it isnnnnnn't perfect
3. This is a good question for your teacher.
4. Tom - great question, and it's good to hear you're interested. This may seem as though a simple question, but it indeed is a little complicated - and I didn't even know to ask such a question until a few years ago. What's going on as of right now is called a "primary." What happens during this process, is a "primary" leader is selected of BOTH the Republican and Democratic party. That way, when election comes in November, you wont have a large list of candidates currently running for office. So, in a sense, the Democrats are currently competing against one another, and the Republicans are doing the same thing. It looks as though the Republican primary will be taken by John McCain, seeing as how most of the other Republican candidates have dropped out of the race. Here is a link to the primaries that have already taken place, and that will continue to do so until the end of June: http://www.ncsl.org/programs/legismgt/elect/2008_Pres_Primary_Calendar.htm Good luck, and if you have any other questions, you can ask me. I happen to be a candidate myself! (for local office) John Shaw Independent Candidate, 2008 Florida House of Representatives, District 9 http://www.johnshaw.org
5. The confusion comes from a couple of glossed over facts. 1 - This is not the election. This is the time when private political clubs choose who they want to place as a candidate in the election. The real selection is made at the party convention. The primaries are a tool used by some of the parties to try and figure out who they want to choose. 2 - After the parties, Republican, Democrat, Libertarian, etc. chose their candidates, we will have the real election.