A presidential election is a national vote held every four years to determine the next President of the United States. Each state has a certain number of electoral votes, and whoever receives a majority of those votes wins the presidency. There are a total of 538 electoral votes, and 270 of those are needed to win. Candidates need to pair states that are safely in their column with battleground states in order to get those 270 electoral votes.
This method of voting was created to prevent the creation of political parties and alliances from deciding the outcome of a national election. The Founders believed that this could lead to short-term gains by a party, but would be harmful to the long term success of republics.
Once the general election is over, voters cast their ballots for electors in each state. Except for Maine and Nebraska, which award one electoral vote per congressional district, all states award their electoral votes to the candidate who gets the most statewide popular vote.
This allows for Democratic and Republican voters to focus their resources, money and energy in swing states. In addition to traditional campaign methods like rallies and speeches, national advertising, direct mail, telephone campaigns and social media are used. As a result of this, it is often difficult to accurately predict who will be the next president. The most common way to make a prediction is to look at the polls and compare them to the results of past elections. This will provide a good indication of which direction the momentum is going.