Since 1952 the first primary election has traditionally been in New Hampshire. It is the first real test of opinion and receives a great deal of publicity from the media. As a result a number of other states have tried to bring forward their primaries but the biggest contender to New Hampshire in terms of importance has been the decision by 21 mostly Southern states to hold their primaries on the same day in what has become known as "Super Tuesday". Originally this was on March 8th 1988, but it is now usually held on the second Tuesday of March in election year.

There are a variety of ways in which the elections at a local level are held. These can almost be seen as the heats in an athletics meeting. If you win this you move on to the next one, the semi-finals (state party elections) and if you win this, on to the final itself. One is the caucus system. Others are the so-called primaries : closed primaries, open primaries and blanket primaries.