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Every four years Americans go to the polls inNovember to pick a president. Americans will elect the next president in November of 2016. Although the election is still more than a year away,candidates have been announcing they are running for president.

All of the candidates are most likely trying to raise the large amount of moneyneeded to make the run to the White House.

The candidates will need the money to campaign in a series of caucuses andprimaries just to win the nomination of their parties. Here is how they work:

Iowa Caucus: first up to bat

The Midwestern state of Iowa likes to be known as first. It is the first state tovote in a presidential election. Both parties, Democratic and Republican, meetin caucuses to vote for the candidate they want for president.

U.S. President Barack Obama campaigns in Iowa in 2012

Caucuses are more complicated than primaries. People who are registeredin one of the parties gather for an evening of discussion and debate aroundthe state. At the end of the night, everyone votes.

All the votes across the state are counted, and eachparty declares a winner. Candidates receivedelegates based on the number of votes they have. The delegates go to the party’s convention later thatyear to choose the party’s presidential nominee.

Professor Larry Sabato, of the University of VirginiaCenter for Politics, says Iowa is important because iteliminates the weak candidates.

“So you don’t look to Iowa to see who wins, you really look to Iowa to see wholoses badly, so they can be eliminated.”

Because it is the first state to vote, Iowa receives a lot of attention from bothcandidates and the press. Candidates start campaigning early. They drive allover the state to meet as many voters, and shake as many hands, aspossible. Some even move their families to live in Iowa.

Individual voters get a lot of attention. National reporters interview them fortheir opinions. This has become an American political tradition.

Candidate Rick Santorum campaigns in Iowa on Jan. 1, 2012

The Iowa caucus became an important marker in the campaign back in 1972.Democratic Senator George McGovern did better than expected. He won thecaucus and the attention of the media. Mr. McGovern went on to win theDemocratic nomination for president. But he lost the national election in alandslide to Republican Richard Nixon.

In 1976, Jimmy Carter was a little-known former governor of Georgia and apeanut farmer. He spent a year campaigning in Iowa. His effort paid off with abig victory in the caucus and later the White House.

But these days, the person who wins the caucus doesnot always win the White House. Mr. Sabato says this is especially true for the Republicans.

“The winner in Iowa especially on the Republican sideoften does not win the nomination. The last timearound, 2012 Rick Santorum won the Iowa caucus and of course he didn’t come anywhere close to being thenominee.”

Mr. Sabato explains that the Republicans in Iowa are more conservative thanthose in New Hampshire, the next state to vote.

New Hampshire Primary: first in the nation

By law, the state of New Hampshire always holds the first primary in thenation for a presidential election.

New Hampshire Primary 2012

While the Northeastern state is small in both size and population, it has a largerole in the election, because it is the first primary. Mr. Sabato says the resultsthere are often different than in Iowa. He says New Hampshire voters often dopick their party’s nominee.

“Partly that’s because the New Hampshire voters I believe take their job veryseriously in looking for the best possible candidate who can win in November.They don’t always succeed, but they try a bit better and harder than the Iowacaucus voters do.”

As in Iowa, the candidates on both sides work the stateseeking votes, with cameras and reporters close by.They sit in coffee shops and stand outside offices andshake hands and answer voters’ questions.

Unlike the caucus model, New Hampshire voters go topolling places, where they vote privately in a votingbooth.

The winner in New Hampshire gets momentum for his or her campaign. However, it is not a definite sign of winning their party’s nomination and thenthe White House. After all, there are many more states to campaign in acrossthe country.

And the big primaries, one named “Super Tuesday,” will come later inFebruary or early March. That is when many states across the country willhold their primaries and caucuses. This includes the larger states with manydelegates.

Eventually, in the summer, both Democrats and Republicans will gather attheir conventions to formally nominate their candidate to be the next presidentof the United States.

I’m Anne Ball.

Anne Ball wrote this story for Learning English. Hai Do was the editor.

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Words in This Story

caucus –n; a meeting of members of a political party for the purpose ofchoosing candidates for an election

primary- n; an election in which members of the same political party runagainst each other for the chance to be in a larger election, like thepresidential election

delegate- n; a person who is chosen or elected to vote or act for others

convention-n; a large meeting of people from each political party who gatherto decide who their nominee will be

eliminate – v; to remove something, to get rid of something

landslide –n; an election in which the winner gets a much greater amount ofvotes than the loser does.

momentum –n; the strength that allows something to continue and growstronger and faster with time