For those of us who are protestants, Presbyterian myself, what is this annulment does the church do it how does someone get one, it seems like a waste of time and effort to me, everyone is entitled to there own view and I am not trying to offend Catholics but I have never understood this issue.
The Catholic Church does not allow divorce. What God has joined, let no man put asunder, and so forth.
However, there are certain conditions that must be present for a wedding ceremony to be valid. Most annulments of marriages are, I believe, on the basis that informed consent was not present at the time of the wedding. http://www.ewtn.com/expert/answers/marital_consent.htm (You need to read the link to understand.) If the marriage wasn't valid, then it can be annulled and the man and woman are free to marry others.
Sometimes the annulment procedure is abused and treated like divorce, but that is, well, an abuse.
The only reason it matters to anybody in a political sense is that Kerry was making a big deal of being a Catholic (presumably, courting the ethnic Catholic Dem vote). If he's not validly married in the Church, then he certainly cannot be getting photo ops with bishops and trying to go after Catholic voters on those grounds.