When will we know the winner of the US Presidential battle?

Here are the hows and whys of the US election, arguably the greatest democratic battle

The US Presidential elections can easily be called the greatest democratic showdown the world is witnessing. All the drama, promises, allegations and full-blooded speeches will translate into numbers on November 8 and decide whether Republicans will take the Oval office or the US will get its first female President in over two centuries of its history.

But before that, one must try to understand the electoral process that will finally decide who wins the battle -- Republican candidate and billionaire Donald Trump, or Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton, a career politician. Business Standard brings you an easy-to-understand guide to the US elections. 

Eligibility

To become the President of the United States, a person must:

• Be a natural-born citizen of the United States of America
• Be above 35 years of age
• Have been the resident of the US for a minimum of 14 years

Parties

There are two major parties, the right-wing Republican party, also known as the Grand Old Party, and the centre-left Democratic Party. This time, Donald Trump is representing the Republicans, and Hillary Clinton the Democrats. 
 

Primaries and the Caucuses

Candidates must go through the process of primaries and caucuses. Primaries are run by state and local governments, and people vote for their favourite candidate or party through a secret ballot. . 

Caucuses are private meetings run by political parties. Participants divide themselves into groups according to the candidate they support. Each group then gives speeches supporting its candidate and tries to persuade others. Party organisers finally count the votes in each candidate's group and calculate how many delegates each candidate has won.

There are two types of delegates -- pledged and unpledged. Pledged are the ones who are required to support the candidate whom they are assigned to through the primary caucus. Unpledged or superdelagates can vote for any Presidential candidate. 

ALSO READ: OUR LIVE BLOG ON US PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIONS

They represent their states in the national party convention. The candidate who receives a majority of his or her party's delegates wins the nomination. 

Each party has some superdelgates. They are not bound to any specific candidate heading for the election. When the primaries and caucuses are over, each party holds a national convention to chose the nominee.

National Convention

At the National Convention, parties sit down to chose thier final candidate for President and Vice-President. Most likely, the elected Presidential candidate chooses his or her running mate, or the vice-presidential nominee.

Electoral College

Surprisingly, in the US Presidential elections, the President and the Vice-President are not directly elected by the people. Under a process of Electoral College, electors vote for the President and Vice-President. The 50 states and Washington DC have certain numbers of electors, who form this electoral college. Currently, there are 538 electors who will cast their vote to decide the President and Vice-President. For gaining a majority, a candidate needs 270 votes.

This generally means that the candidate chosen by the people ends up winning the electoral college vote. The final formal announcement of the winner this time will take place in January.

Result announcement

The result of the election will be declared on November 9 at 9:30 am IST. Voting will last close in Alaska.