Can someone explain this to a non-US citizen? Basically, when is the primary election done? Where can we follow the process?
Picture two street gangs - one wears red, the other wears blue. We'll call the ones that wear red "Bloods" and the ones that wear blue "Crips".
We have something like a neighborhood watch that takes care of our neighborhood, and we get to select anyone we want to run that neighborhood watch, provided of course they are a gang member in good standing with either the Crips or the Bloods.
I say good standing, because the Bloods are having a little "problem" right now with a guy from the neighborhood named Ron Paul because he isn't really part of the gang - he's just a guy from the neighborhood that thinks maybe it isn't such a good idea to keep voting in gang members to run our neighborhood watch. But that's ok because the gangs are far too powerful to ever be infiltrated so he doesn't stand a chance.
The leader of the Crips is currently in charge, and if we want we can allow him to stay in charge. Meanwhile, the Bloods are having a shootout in the streets right now - this is called the "primary process".
The last member of the Bloods left alive will be the one that goes up against the leader of the Crips in a final showdown. This is called the "general election".
The important thing to remember is that this is a democracy and so we get to pick ANYBODY we want to run our neighborhood watch, provided of course he is one of the most bad ass Crips or Bloods in the neighborhood of course.
I also forgot to add that our votes for the leader of the neighborhood watch don't actually count. There are only a handful of people in the whole neighborhood that actually gets to vote for our leader - this is called the "electoral college". Our votes are really just suggestions to those guys, but they get to pick whoever they want so it doesn't matter.
I hope that helps explain the American electoral process to you.
