There is a lot of misunderstanding and confusion about what is happening in the presidential election process in 2016. Here is an independent outsider's view about the USA election procedures. Ofcourse you are free to disagree.

The current caucus delegate voting: Presidential candidacy is having state delegates vote [ prior to a November election ] as commitment for a candidate prior to a national convention. This procedure is referred to as a caucus. The caucus vote commitment is brought to the national convention. If no party candidate wins the maximum number of winning delegates, then the national convention becomes an open convention. This means that the caucus delegates now can vote again to decide on who will win the party presidential candidacy. But if a candidate wins the maximum required number of votes in the early caucus, then the national party convention is closed and the caucus delegates do not vote for a president.

Un-Democratic Selection of Candidate:  The above procedure to nominate a president appears straight forward but it is not.  The Republican party can, by vote of the all state representatives, change the rules at the Republican National Convention just before considering the first candidate vote at an open convention.  Additional changes may be voted upon so the presidential candidate nomination procedure becomes more undemocratic and muddy.

The Democratic Party’s presidential selection process also flawed and undemocratic.  It undermines faith in the party.  For example, superdelegates (which favor Hillary Clinton) and caucuses (which favor Bernie Sanders). As the New York Times editorial board explained: “Superdelegates are party bigwigs — 712 Democratic leaders, legislators, governors and the like. Superdelegates were created in 1980 by establishment elites to increase their own power. They can vote for any candidate at the nominating convention, regardless of whether that candidate won the popular vote. These unpledged delegates make up 30 percent of the 2,382 delegates whose votes are needed to win the nomination, and could thus make all the difference.” Blow: Demo Irregularities 2016

Party representatives at the national convention may be swayed from their original candidate stance and representatives may be bought or bribed and thereby distort the entire nomination of a presidential candidate.  In all honesty, the party representatives themselves do not understand all these "goings-on!"  It ain't fair!

Revolt against establishment --- This year's election process is a rebellion against the establishment Washington politicians, the way they conduct business as usual and their values. It is a political revolution without guns and bullets. Ties to the establishment are perceived if the candidate gets money from lobbyists, corporations or Wall Street. All republican and democratic candidates have ties to the establishment except Bernie Sanders. Trump does not receive campaign funds although he himself is in business and thus represents the economic establishment. No one knows whether this revolution will be successful!

Toxic baggage of candidates: Two major candidates have excess baggage. Hillary Clinton has unresolved e-mails that appear to be controversial, as well as change reversals in voting on issues. Don Trump has three lawsuits that will be in court in July as well as controversy about the authenticity of his products and over hiring of illegal workers in his businesses. Although in both examples, the leading candidates may win their party nominations only to be possibly disqualified in July or August. This is not a sure take-down but a possibility. The toxic baggage muddies the candidate reputation and paints a very unclear picture of what may lie ahead. Somehow these two candidates slipped through the early imperfect screening process for presidential candidates.  This year the presidential campaign has become dirty politics as with a candidate smearing the wive of another candidate.  Civility has been lost!

Who's running the candidate show?: Somehow the presidential candidates are getting unprecedented free coverage as presidential candidates. This has been especially true for front-runners Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton.  Who is fanning the coverage each day?  It is not the candidates buying TV time.  Instead it is the mass media reporters hungry for news and competing to keep their jobs!  Mass media is creating the news when there is often no news!  It is relentless mass media coverage making stories and competing to gain popularity for their TV stations with irresponsible survey polls and supposed debates to sustain public interest.  Mass media has become a circus show that fosters, controls and is manipulating a party presidential candidate and not the people.

USA election procedure is messed up: The two party domination excludes a true democratic system. Indeed, one could say that USA democracy is undergoing a change in many respects. American democracy has been shooting itself in the foot for many years now and this year it is starting to shoot itself in the head! The Greek and Roman philosophers viewed democracy as lasting only 300 years or less before it implodes from the power of money and greed. And how can the average voter concentrate for a whole year on electing a president? The election process lasting over a year has become a mass media entertainment circus.

It is no wonder that 60 to 65% of registered voters stay home and do not vote in the general election in November. People get tired of listening to all the Mass-Media hype for a whole year!

References:

Blow Charles, "The (un)Democratic Party." The New York Times, April 04, 2016.  Blow: Demo Irregularities 2016