Presidential nomination process (US)

The presidential candidates in the United States are selected by a process of primary elections. The major political parties do not directly select the candidate, instead the voters are requesting delegates to represent their vote when they attend the national party convention.

Democratic Party nomination process

"see also Democratic National Convention"

The Democratic Party has a total of 4,049 delegates. Of those 3,253 are pledged based on state's primary (and caucous) results and 796 are Superdelegates.

Republican Party nomination process

"see also Republican National Convention"

The size of delegations to the Republican National Convention are determined by the national rules of the Republican Party, which as of 2004 indicate the following:

# Ten delegates at large from each of the fifty states.
# The national committeeman, the national committeewoman and the chairman of the state Republican Party of, each state and American Samoa, the District of Columbia, Guam, Northern Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
# Three district delegates for each member of the United States House of Representatives from each state, six from DC, and between six and twenty delegates from each of the territories.
# From each state having cast at least a majority of its Electoral College votes for the Republican nominee in the preceding presidential election: four and one-half delegates at large plus a number of the delegates at large equal to 60 percent of the number of electoral votes of that state, rounding any fraction upwards
#one additional delegate at large to each state
##which elected a Republican governor since the preceding presidential election
##whose Republican members of the United States House of Representatives represent a majority of that state's representatives
##where Republicans control any chamber of the state legislature
##where Republicans control all chambers of the state legislature
#one additional delegate to each state per Republican it elected to the United States Senate in the six-year period prior to January 1 of the year in which the next national convention is held.

The composition of the individual state and territory delegations is determined by the bylaws of their respective state and territory parties. Since 1972, almost all have appointed delegates by primary election results, although some, notably Iowa, use caucuses, and others combine the primary with caucuses or with delegates elected at a state convention.

References

* [http://www.thisnation.com/question/021.html Explanation of nominating process]