The winner of this election is not necessarily the person who gets the most votes from the public – bear with us while we explain that.
Instead, US presidential candidates compete to win contests held across the US’s 50 states, plus the District of Columbia.
Each state or territory runs its own election, and then send a designated number of electors – which is roughly based on its population size – to vote in the electoral college.
There are a total of 538 votes up for grabs – the winner is the candidate that gets 270 or more.
Most states lean heavily towards one party or the other, so the focus is on about seven states where either of them could win – these are known as the swing states, which we took you through a little earlier.
