President Donald Trump tried to declare victory in the presidential election early Wednesday. But he hasn’t won, because all the votes haven’t been counted – and in some ways, the process is just getting started. While Americans vote on or before Election Day, picking the US president is actually a months-long process and the election is just one step. The system is especially confusing because voters only cast ballots to determine which candidate gets to send a handpicked group of allies known as electors to the Electoral College, where the actual presidential vote takes place. (Here’s a refresher on that.) The whole timeline is below.