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Originally Posted by filtherton
Democratic primaries/caucuses divide up delegates based on the proportion of votes a candidate received while republican primaries/caucuses are winner take all.
Get a majority of delegates and you get to slap your party's logo on all your campaign literature.
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I'll expand a bit on the Democratic side. Each state has a certain number of pledged delegates who are appointed with the understanding that they are required to cast their vote based on the popular vote in the state. There are also a number of Superdelegates, who either hold political offices or are party members, who are not bound to voting for a certain candidate (getting superdelegate support was what got Howard Dean an pre-primary lead in '04.) Candidates must receive at least 15% of votes to be represented by pledged delegates
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Originally Posted by feelgood
Ok, I'm kind of getting it. Last question, what happens in the presidential elections? Does one win by getting more popular vote, or by more districts/states?
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Each state is represented in the electoral college by a number of electors assigned based on population. 24 states have laws allowing for punishment of electors who do not vote for candidates who win the popular vote, but it's never happened. Electors are technically free to vote for any candidate, the original intent being the protection of the people from a candidate who gains popularity but would be harmful to the country (theoretically, it could prevent something like Hitler's popular election; it probably wouldn't work in practice.)