bcretton asked this question on 9/20/2000:
How does the president of the united states become elected president(please provide all the necessary steps in becoming a president).
Anonymous asked this question on 10/2/2000:
complete steps (from beginning to end) a candidate must take to become U.S. president
JesseGordon gave this response on 10/3/2000:
Here's my FAQ on the process of getting elected:
1) The candidate announces his candidacy and works toward public awareness, fund-raising, and developing a set of issue stances. This occured last spring and summer (1999).
2) The primary season (which went from Januray until June) is characterized by the candidates battling each other within their parties. You can see most of the debates from this process at http://www.issues2000.org/archive.htm. The debates ended in March, when the main contenders (Bush & Gore) beat their main rivals (McCain & Bradley) by garnering sufficient primary delegates to win the convention.
3) The primaries decide the number of delegates for each candidate at the convention, where the candidate wins his party's nomination. Bush & Gore were formally nominated at their conventions in July and August; the third parties had conventions from June to August.
4) The candidate also selects his running mate around the time of the conventions.
5) The "general election" season is characterized by battling between the Democrats and Republicans (i.e., Bush attacking Gore and vice versa). The debates between them will begin in a couple of weeks.
6) The general election is on Nov 7. Whoever wins the most electoral votes becomes president.