The incumbent, Donald Trump of the Republican party will go head-to-head with Joe Biden of the Democratic Party.
As it is known with many democracies across the world in regards to using a simple majority to declare winners of elections, it is slightly different with the United States.
The US uses what is widely known as the Electoral College system. This system determines the President of the United States not by a majority.
Here's how it works:
Voters in the US actually vote for electors appointed by their state’s political parties who are pledged to support that party’s candidate and not directly for the main candidates.
Each candidate needs 270 electoral votes to win, therefore, the focus goes to some key battleground states to determine the winner.
There are 538 electors in the electoral college: one for each member of the House of Representatives, two per senator, and three allocated to the District of Columbia through the 22nd Amendment.
So, after voters cast their ballots (and after governors of the states certify the tallies and electoral lists), the electors then meet in December in their respective states. At that point, they then officially vote for president and vice president. Members of the House and Senate then meet in January to take an official tally of those votes.
Generally, states award all their electoral college votes to whoever won the poll of ordinary voters in the state.
For example, if a candidate wins 50.1% of the vote in Texas, they are awarded all of the state's 38 electoral votes. Alternatively, a candidate could win by a landslide and still pick up the same number of electoral votes.
It's therefore possible for a candidate to become president by winning a number of tight races in certain states, despite having fewer votes across the country.
This is why presidential candidates target specific "swing states" - states where the vote could go either way - rather than trying to win over as many voters as possible across the country.
Every state they win gets them closer to the 270 electoral college votes they need.