Electing a president in the US

The election is divided in the following steps:

Primaries - winner - national convention - nomination - vice president / platform - campaign - election (people) - election (electoral college) - president

Primaries are held in most states and these are state wide elections to choose a state party nominee for president. The winner of each state is guaranteed a delegation in the national convention. The primaries proceed and are reduced to two or three candidates. At the national convention, the final candidate for president is elected. The creation of a party "platform" is the team of candidates running for President and Vice President in the fall election. The serious campaigning starts in September till the first voting day, the first Tuesday in November. The campaigns are huge and a lot of money are spend and a lot of promises are made. The President and Vice President are not elected by the popular vote. Each state has it's own election and the winner takes it all from that state. Depending on how bug the state is and how many citizens there are, they get a number of congressmen in Parliament. The congressmen represent their states in votes. There are 435 congressmen in the US, 100 senators and 3 from the District of Columbia, these people are the 538 electoral voters and a candidate must have a majority of these votes, that's 270 votes to win the election.