<P> Both parties then enacted stricter timing rules for 2016: primaries and caucuses cannot start until February 1; and only Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina and Nevada are entitled to February contests . </P> <P> The primary and caucus system is the only method in which voters in Puerto Rico, Guam, and other U.S. territories can have a say in the presidential race . Under the U.S. Constitution, U.S. territories are not represented in the Electoral College, and thus voters residing in those areas are basically ineligible to vote in the general election . On the other hand, as stated above, the primaries and caucuses are non-governmental party affairs . Both the Democratic and Republican parties, as well as other third parties, have agreed to let these territories participate in the presidential nomination process . In the two major party's rules, "territories" are referred to as "states", which can be carried over in discussion and media implying there are more than 50 states . </P> <P> An incumbent President seeking re-election usually faces no opposition during their respective party's primaries, especially if they are still popular . For Presidents Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Barack Obama, for example, their respective paths to nomination became uneventful and the races become merely pro forma; all four then went on to win a second presidential term . Serious challenges are rare, but then generally presage failure to win the general election in the fall . During the 1976 Republican Party primaries, then - former California Governor Reagan carried 23 states while running against incumbent President Gerald Ford; Ford then went on to lose the Presidential election to Jimmy Carter . Senator Ted Kennedy then carried 12 states while running against Carter during the 1980 Democratic Party primaries; Reagan then defeated Carter in the fall . Pat Buchanan captured a decent percentage of a protest vote against George H.W. Bush during the 1992 Republican primaries, but only received a handful of delegates; Bush too subsequently went on to lose in the general election to Clinton . </P> <P> Both major political parties of the U.S.--the Democratic Party and the Republican Party--officially nominate their candidate for President at their respective national conventions . Each of these conventions is attended by a number of delegates selected in accordance with the given party's bylaws . The results of the presidential primaries and caucuses bind many of these delegates, known as pledged delegates, to vote for a particular candidate . </P>

Does the president have to go through primaries
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