If you want to get right into the game, here's the minimum you need to know to play. We're assuming here that you can click buttons not described to see what they do. :-)
On the first setup screen, click the "robo" box next to candidates who will be controlled by the computer. If you're playing solitaire, that means leave one box unchecked for yourself and check any others. By default there are two candidates, a Democrat and a Republican. If you want more candidates or different parties, select the desired parties. Accept the defaults for everything else. On the following setup screens, just accept the defaults for everything.
For a human player, i.e. you, select an action by clicking a radio button and then clicking "Details". Actions that you cannot do right now are disabled. For your first action on your first turn, you have no money so the only things you can do are Solicit PAC or Fundraise. Once you get some money, the other actions will become available.
Some actions require no further information and are executed once you click "Details". For others you must give the computer more information. For example, if you pick one of the Campaign actions, you must then select a state. Click the button for the desired state and the action is then resolved. If you campaign in a small state, you can then campaign in a second small state, which must be adjacent to the first. (There are some special cases where states that are not really adjacent are considered adjacent for purposes of this rule. For example, South Carolina and Alabama are considered adjacent. But you don't have to figure it out: the game only lists legal choices.) Alaska and Hawaii are not adjacent to any other states, so if you pick one of these, you don't get a second state.
There are three types of Campaign, depending on the size of the state. Bigger states are more expensive. Whichever you pick, you are then shown only states of that size.
You cannot campaign in the same state more than once per turn. So any state you already campaigned in is disabled.
For Solicit PAC, you get a set of PACs with radio buttons. The game picks a likely PAC for you. If you accept the computer's choice, just click "Solicit". Otherwise pick the PAC you want and then click "Solicit".
If you click Details and more information is required, and after seeing the choices you change your mind, just select a different action and click Details again.
When you have completed all your actions for the turn, the Details button is disabled. Click "Next" to go to the next player. If you are the last player, Next goes to the first player for the next turn.
For robocancidates, i.e. computer-controlled players, the game shows a similar display but it picks the actions. You just click "Details" to see the results. When all actions are complete, click Next to go to the next player or next turn.
Sometimes when the game gets to an action for a robo, it is not possible at that time. Usually this is because the robo doesn't have enough money, but there are some other reasons. In that case, the original action is crossed out and a new action appears below it. The crossed out action is now irrelevant. We only show it to avoid having actions mysteriously change.
At the end of each turn, there is an "Opinion Poll". You are shown a graph of how electoral votes and popular vote have trended since the start of the game. You can close this display to get it out of the way, or just scroll past it.
There are a few "events" that happen during the course of the campaign. These display below the opinion poll results. Read the display and then click "Continue" to continue with the game. You cannot just scroll past these. The game is stopped until you click Continue.
To win a debate, you must do Debate Prep. Debate Prep gains you "debate points". Whoever has the most debate points when a debate rolls around wins. But everyone gets one free Debate Prep just before the debate, so even if you're ahead, someone else could gain more than you on the freebie.
A "Surprise" is anything that causes the vote on Election Day to be different from what the polls and conventional wisdom would predict. You probably want to do some Plan Surprise actions to line up some Surprises for Election Day.
Try clicking the buttons for the various displays.
On Election Day -- first week of November -- we see who wins the election and the game. There is a table that lists each state as the winner is determined. Below this is a summary of the number of electoral votes for each candidate, and a map showing which states each candidate has won. Click Next to see the results for the next state. Keep clicking Next until all states are resolved. The computer then announces the winner.
If no one wins a majority of the electoral votes, the election is thrown to the House of Representatives. There is a similar process to resolve the vote in the House, but with different rules about who wins each state.