This report answers frequently asked questions about presidential primaries and caucuses, and the national party nominating conventions that follow them. The nominating process elicits questions because it relies on a dense combination of national and state party rules and state election laws to conduct the primaries and caucuses, and it proceeds according to a seemingly haphazard calendar of events. Furthermore, the conventions officially select the presidential candidates, but the nominating contest is almost always resolved earlier, during the primary season, as soon as one candidate can claim a majority of delegates. The role of the modern conventions is to officially ratify the primary season results. Despite its complicated nature, the presidential nominating process is simply a race among presidential candidates to accumulate a majority of delegates, in order to claim the nomination at the national convention. This report discusses selected aspects of the convoluted process of choosing delegates in the primaries and caucuses and the national conventions that officially mark the end of the nominating season. State parties use two basic methods to select the national convention delegates, the caucus and the primary. Some state parties combine the two to select delegates. A caucus is a local meeting, usually at the precinct level, where participants register their presidential candidate preference in a public way by joining a group of supporters for that candidate. In some caucuses, participants simply write their presidential candidate preference on a slip of paper. The presidential candidate supporters then elect delegates from the group to the next level, usually county conventions, where the same process is repeated. The national convention delegates are usually elected at the congressional district and state conventions. In contrast to primary elections, the caucuses are run by the political parties. A presidential primary is run by elections officials in the state, and the voter goes to his or her regular polling place to cast a ballot. The voter may mark the ballot for a presidential candidate only, called a preference primary, or may mark it for a presidential candidate and for a certain number of delegates pledged to that candidate, called a direct election primary. In the latter case, the delegates are elected in the primary based on individual delegate vote tallies. In both types of primaries, the national delegate slots are assigned to presidential candidates according to the primary results. The primary and caucus processes are discussed in greater detail in the body of this report. Until recent decades, the national party conventions played the key role in choosing the presidential nominees. In the era of "party bosses," state and local party leaders often controlled blocs of delegates or entire state delegations, because the delegates were chosen in closed party meetings or conventions. Presidential candidates needed the support of the party leaders and bosses to win the nomination, and deal-making was crucial to the process. The focal point of this activity was the national convention itself, where the outcome was often unknown until the convention conferred the nomination, following a roll call vote of the state delegations. Some conventions required repeated voting by the delegates before one candidate emerged with a majority of support. These multiple ballot, or brokered, conventions were fairly common, but the last one occurred in 1952, when Democrats needed three ballots to nominate Governor Adlai Stevenson to face General Dwight D. Eisenhower in the general election. The last Republican convention to require multiple ballots was in 1948, when Governor Thomas Dewey claimed the nomination on the third ballot over Senator Robert Taft and former Governor Harold Stassen. There has been speculation that no candidate will secure a majority of support from delegates to the 2016 Republican convention, which could result in pre-nomination maneuvering or even multiple ballots to declare a nominee. Since the 1970s, reform of the nominating process has diminished the importance of the conventions and increased the importance of primaries in choosing the nominees (discussed in the following section entitled "The Contemporary Nominating Process"). Although the conventions no longer select the candidates, but simply ratify the results from the primary season, they perform an important political function by showcasing the political parties, their presidential and vice presidential candidates, and kicking off the general election campaign. In the turbulent decade of the 1960s, various reform movements focused attention on perceived inequities in society and on the political process in particular. Within the Democratic Party, the 1968 national convention in Chicago gave rise to a reform effort after the convention erupted in controversy and violence. Inside the convention hall, disputes arose because of the boss-controlled selection process while, outside the hall, police and anti-war protesters clashed repeatedly over a six day period. When the convention ended, the party appointed a group to examine the nomination process. The Commission on Party Structure and Delegate Selection, better known as the McGovern-Fraser Commission, made various recommendations to democratize the delegate selection process that were subsequently adopted by the Democratic National Committee. The new rules, first in effect for the 1972 election, transformed the process by making it more open and responsive to rank and file party voters, and by reducing the power of party leaders and bosses to control delegations to the national conventions. One result of the rules changes was that many state parties, both Democratic and Republican, adopted the primary to elect the delegates, rather than choosing them in caucuses, conventions, or meetings of party officials and leaders. The primary was perceived as more open and transparent. The rising number of primaries shifted the suspense of choosing the nominee from the convention to the primary season, because the delegate count was now public. A candidate could publicly claim the nomination as soon as he or she won a majority of the delegates, as every candidate in both major parties has done in recent decades, with one exception. In 1976, President Gerald Ford and Governor Ronald Reagan competed for delegate support until the start of the national convention, with Ford prevailing. Some candidates in recent primary seasons have claimed the nomination as early as March, after just a few weeks of voting, because of the trend known as "front-loading." Over the past 25 years, an increasing number of states and state parties scheduled events at the beginning of the primary season to attract candidate and media attention, resulting in a calendar that featured a large cluster of early primaries and caucuses. On the positive side, front-loading has often meant that the nomination was resolved early in the primary season, allowing the presumptive nominee to begin campaigning for the general election. Two criticisms of the front-loading trend were that the contest could be resolved only weeks after its start, without much of a testing period for the candidates, and that the contest was usually over before voters in states with later primaries and caucuses could cast their ballots. The calendar for 2012 was less front-loaded than at any time in recent decades, which contributed to a more prolonged contest on the Republican side but also generated complaints as a result. The 2016 calendar is even less front-loaded and features the latest start since 1996, with the Iowa caucuses on February 1 and the New Hampshire primary on February 9, nearly a month later than in 2012. The contemporary nominating system is only a few decades old, having grown out of the 1970s reforms that replaced the boss-dominated convention system with a process that emphasized rank and file participation. Among the concepts that define the current system is that primaries are the dominant method for selecting the delegates, front-loading of the calendar has been prevalent for most of the past three decades, and the national conventions are largely symbolic with respect to conferring the nomination. Perhaps the most important result of the reform era is that, despite the system's complexities, the contest for delegates among the presidential candidates is now a mostly transparent, democratic process. The report is organized into two sections. The first section includes questions that pertain to the primary season and the second section includes questions about the national party conventions. The section on the primary season includes basic questions about caucuses and primaries; the calendar; the rules for selecting the delegates, including new Republican Party rules for 2016; and questions about the delegates, such as their bound or unbound status, and the disposition of delegates who support a candidate who has left the race. The second section provides answers to questions about the national party conventions, including questions about how they are financed, what transpires once they convene, and a brief history of brokered, or multi-ballot, conventions. A conventional caucus system relies on a tiered series of meetings to choose national convention delegates. Rank-and-file voters participate in precinct caucuses or local mass meetings (where a presidential preference vote is taken and delegates are elected to the next level based on those preferences), followed by county conventions, congressional district (or perhaps state legislative district) conventions, and a state convention. The national convention delegates are usually chosen at the congressional district and state conventions. As with other elements of the delegate selection process, there is a great deal of variation in how state parties employ the caucus/convention system and, therefore, few generalizations can be made about it. The key to understanding a particular state party's caucus/convention system is whether the preferences of rank-and-file voters at the first stage of the process are or are not the determining factor in choosing national convention delegates. If the preferences of rank-and-file voters are not the determining factor, the system is more likely a meeting or series of meetings of party activists and leaders who, as "free agents," choose the national convention delegates. One generalization that applies, however, is that the caucus/convention system is party-run, whereas a primary election is conducted and paid for by the state (with rare exception). As a result, although some precinct voting places might be used for caucuses, other unofficial election venues could include schools, fire stations, government buildings, private businesses, community centers, and private residences. From a participant's point of view, a conventional caucus is different from a primary because the voting may be public, rather than by secret ballot, and may require a time investment of a few hours, often on a weekday evening.