Local, State, and Federal Elections
Presidential elections take place every four years. State elections for Governor are also typically every four years, however, it’s not the same in every state. Local elections are typically more frequent and can happen at various times throughout the year. There can be statewide elections for state legislature. Local elections are held when a city elects its mayor, judges, and other local officials.
What is a Political Party?
Political parties are organized groups of people with similar ideas about the function and scope of government. They share policy goals and work together to elect officials to political office, create and implement policies, and work to gain control of the government and the policy-making process. They organize political campaigns and mobilize voters. Political parties nominate candidates to run at many levels of government from the president and Congress to state and local city elections.
Political parties don’t run elections or count votes. Local and state officials do this, and they are required by law to be neutral in carrying out their duties.
State parties do run caucuses for presidential primaries, though the state and national party officials themselves are required by party rules to be publicly neutral regarding the outcomes of these events.
Primaries and Caucuses
Before the general election, candidates for president go through a series of state primaries and caucuses. This lets the states choose the major political parties’ nominees that will run against other political parties in the general election.
Primaries are operated by state governments, while caucuses are operated through the political parties themselves. The majority of states use primaries to determine which delegate will move on to be their party’s front runner.
Not all primaries work the same. Some states have closed primaries in which you can only choose a delegate from the party with which you registered to vote. Voters registered with third-parties (or no party) are not permitted to take part in closed primaries. Other states have an open primary where you can select either a Republican or Democratic delegate no matter which party you are affiliated with. There are also several types of primaries in between the two main formats.
When states have open primaries, the national party may refuse to accept the results, and require the state party to hold a caucus to apportion the state’s votes, instead. You can read more about the role of national and state parties here.
Iowa, Nevada, North Dakota, and Wyoming (and several US territories) use a caucus system instead of holding a primary. Kentucky operates a caucus for their republican party but not for the democratic potential candidates. Most states were still using the caucus system until the 1970s. Alaska, Kansas, Hawaii, and Maine were still conducting caucuses until recently switching to primaries. Texas had a primary-caucus combination until recently. Washington state used a hybrid system for the 2020 presidential election as the beginning of a phase-out of their caucus system.
Caucuses are also a political party building meeting in which caucus goers elect delegates attending the caucus to County Conventions which then elect delegates to District and state conventions and ultimately delegates to their party's National Convention. At each step delegates make decisions about the position the party as a whole takes on various issues, building the party's platform, approve rules for how the party operates, elect their internal officers and the electors who ultimately, cast votes in the Electoral College for President of the U.S.
More information:
How the Iowa Caucuses Work - The New York Times
Presidential Caucuses Are Complicated. Why Do Some States Use Them? - PBS
How does the Electoral College work?
The Electoral College is a group of electors formed by the Constitution. It forms every four years with the sole purpose of electing the next president. Each of the 50 states and Washington, DC appoints electors equal in number to its congressional delegation. There are currently 538 electors. In order to win the presidency, a candidate must win the majority of electoral votes (270 or more).
In the majority of presidential elections, the projected winner is announced on election night. But the actual Electoral College vote takes place mid-December when the electors meet in their states.There are multiple other steps between election and inauguration days, most of which are usually ceremonial. However, steps such as the congressional certification of the Electoral College votes became highly contested in the 2020 election.
Under Article II of the Constitution, each state is allowed a number of electors equal to its number of members in the U.S. House of Representatives plus one for each of its two U.S. senators.
California has the most electoral college votes, 55, followed by Texas with 38. Seven states and D.C. have three, which is the fewest allowed.
There are five instances throughout American history where a presidential candidate has won the popular vote and lost the election: Andrew Jackson in 1824 (to John Quincy Adams); Samuel Tilden in 1876 (to Rutherford B. Hayes); Grover Cleveland in 1888 (to Benjamin Harrison); Al Gore in 2000 (to George W. Bush); Hillary Clinton in 2016 (to Donald Trump).
Since the 1970s, there has been an occasional push from both sides of the aisle to abolish the Electoral College. In fact, there have been over 700 proposals introduced to Congress over the last 200 years to either eliminate or reform it. Since the Electoral College is constitutionally mandated, it would require a Constitutional amendment to abolish it.
2020 electoral map (source)