This About Covers It

The United States presidential election of 2008, scheduled for Tuesday, November 4, 2008, will be the 56th consecutive quadrennial United States presidential election and will select the President of the United States and Vice President of the United States. The two major parties' candidates have not been officially chosen, but their presumptive nominees are John McCain, the senior United States Senator from Arizona, for the Republican Party and Barack Obama, the junior United States Senator from Illinois, for the Democratic Party.
The Libertarian Party has nominated former congressman Bob Barr, and the Constitution Party has nominated pastor and radio talk show host Chuck Baldwin. Cynthia McKinney is leading the Green Party's primaries. Ralph Nader declined to seek the Green Party nomination and is running as an independent candidate.
The election will coincide with the 2008 Senate elections in thirty-three states, House of Representatives elections in all states, and gubernatorial elections in eleven states, as well as various state referendums and local elections.
As in the 2004 presidential election, the allocation of electoral votes to each state will be based partially on the 2000 Census. The president-elect and vice president-elect are scheduled to be inaugurated on January 20, 2009.

Party conventions
April 23-26, 2008: 2008 Constitution Party National Convention held in Kansas City, Missouri.
May 23-26, 2008: 2008 Libertarian National Convention, held in Denver, Colorado.
July 10-13, 2008: 2008 Green Party National Convention, to be held in Chicago, Illinois.
July 18-20, 2008: 2008 Reform Party National Convention, to be held in Dallas, Texas.
August 25-28, 2008: 2008 Democratic National Convention, to be held in Denver, Colorado.
September 1-4, 2008: 2008 Republican National Convention, to be held in Saint Paul, Minnesota.

Debates
September 26: First Presidential Debate at the University of Mississippi on domestic policy.[35]
October 2: Vice Presidential Debate at Washington University on domestic and foreign policy.
October 7: Second Presidential Debate at Belmont University will be in a town meeting format and will include any issues raised by members of the audience.
October 15: Third Presidential Debate at Hofstra University on foreign policy.

Election day through to Inauguration
November 4, 2008: Election Day in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. Voters cast votes for listed Presidential candidates but are actually selecting their state's slate of Electoral College members.
December 15, 2008: Members of the U.S. Electoral College meet in each state to cast their votes for President and Vice President.
January 6, 2009: Electoral votes officially tallied before both Houses of Congress. If a member of Congress wishes to object to the certification of a state's electoral votes as was originally reported on Election Night, he or she must do so at this point, even if recounts or lawsuits to require a recount are already in progress.
January 20, 2009: Inauguration Day.

2004 2012
United States presidential election, 2008
November 4, 2008

Electoral college votes for 2008. The winning candidate needs 270 electoral votes out of a total of 538, which is just over 50%.