Understanding Election Vocabulary

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Hello, welcome to another class. I’m Robin and today we’re going to be talking about election vocabulary. So if you have been watching my classes, you know that I am American, I’m from the United States and there is a very important event happening this year in November, which is our presidential election, which only Americans can participate in by voting, but many people all over the world will be following this on the news, or you’re already following it. So, I want to give you all the key vocabulary that you need to understand, in English, what’s happening with the elections. So let’s start with the word “democracy”. So, the United States is a democracy. That means that all of the official positions of power, are elected, are chosen by the people. So, the people of the United States vote and they elect their officials. So this can be the president, your mayor of the state, the sorry, the mayor of your city, the governor of your state, etc. So all of these positions are voted.You vote for one person,also called a candidate, or you vote for another person, another candidate. Okay. So as I said, Election Day in the United States is happening in November and there is a funny rule for when we do this. It’s not a specific date. It is the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November. Okay, so this is kind of a funny rule. But the election, the election always falls on this day, the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November. Okay. So in the United States, we have two main political parties. Okay. So these are like groups that share a similar kind of belief, let’s say, regarding politics. So the main two parties that we have are Republican, which is right-wing, and Democrat, which is left-wing. Now, there do exist other parties, we call them third parties, but they don’t have as big a following as the Republican or Democratic parties. Now this is different in comparison to some other countries that have many different political parties. In the United States., it’s normally just two. So when we talk about a party, we can use the word “partisan”, so this is relating to one party. Now, if it is agreed by both parties, we call it “bipartisan”. So when you talk about a law or something like that, that is agreed upon by both parties, it is bipartisan. Okay. So we have partisan, one party, bipartisan, two parties. Okay, so as I mentioned, we have two candidates running now for President of the United States. Okay. One is representing the Republican Party. One is representing the Democratic Party. Now, in this case, the current president, we call him the “incumbent” because, in this case, it’s Donald Trump, he is running again, because in the United States, you can run for two terms. Okay, so we have a two term limit. Terms are four years. So you can possibly be president for a total of eight years. Okay, so the incumbent is Donald Trump representing the Republican party and his opponent, the other candidate, is Joe Biden, representing the Democratic Party. Okay, so when you run for president, you run with a “running mate”. So this running mate is the person who, if you win, will be the Vice President. Okay, so your running mate is the possible candidate for Vice President. All right. So before the election, a long time before in the United States, the candidates start to “campaign”. Now to campaign means that you promote your party, you promote your candidacy. So, by campaigning that means that these candidates, they visit different cities, they have commercials on TV, they talk to people, they have social media campaigns, they spread the word about what they represent. Okay. So their “platform”, when you are a candidate, you have a platform and your platform are the different things that if elected president you want to do. So you can, maybe you want to make changes to healthcare, maybe you want to change a specific law about something. So this is your platform. So these two candidates are campaigning right now and they have been campaigning for many months, sharing their platform traveling around the United States and sharing their platform with the citizens, the people who live in the United States. And, recently, the political national conventions have taken place. So both parties have a convention where they officially select their candidates. So recently we had the Democratic National Convention and also the Republican National Convention. So the people who attend this convention are called “delegates”. Okay. So these people are elected, are selected, from their state. So there are 50 states in the United States. Each state selects these people. They are called delegates and they go to the convention, to the national convention. Okay, throughout the campaign before the election, many people may take different kinds of “polls”. Okay, so a poll is a sample where you go and you ask someone, it could be online, it could be in person, you ask someone, who are you going to vote for? So you ask many different people from many different places, different situations, and you put together this information and you see, okay, this percent, 50% say they’re going to vote, Republican and 50%, for example, say they’re going to vote Democrat. Okay. So you have polling that goes throughout the, throughout the process, so that you have an idea of what the possible outcome, the possible on Election Day what’s going to happen. Okay. Another thing that happens during an election is many people, famous people, politicians or celebrities “endorse” a candidate. Okay, so maybe a famous singer or a famous actor, someone with a lot of influence says, “I endorse this person”. That means that they probably give money to their campaign, they donate. And they publicly say they publicly encourage people to vote for that person. So if you endorse someone, it means that you give them your support, and you donate to their campaign. All right. So as I mentioned with the polling when you try to get an idea of who is voting for whom, all right, you normally have what we call a “front-runner”. Sometimes we don’t, but normally a front-runner is the person who it looks like is going to win. So if the percentages are like 70-30, then it’s very clear that there is a front-runner because this person with 70% of the vote is the front-runner because it’s clear that they’re probably going to win. Now, this doesn’t always happen. Sometimes it’s very close. And you don’t know until the day of the election. What can happen sometimes before the candidates are official, so each party has a number of people who want to run for president and then they decide on one specific candidate. So, people will sometimes if they see that they are not the front-runner, this candidate will, what we call, “throw in the towel”. Okay, so this is an expression. If you throw in the towel, it means that you stop, you stop running, you quit, because you know that you’re not going to win. So with a presidential election, it costs a lot of money to campaign. So, a candidate, if they see that they are not the front-runner, then they may throw in the towel. So it’s not literal. It just means that they say, “Okay, I’m going to stop. I am not running for president anymore.” So this has happened along the way throughout the past year. All right. Now let’s get down to what Americans need to do to vote in this election. Okay? You need to be an American national and you need to register to vote. Okay, so this is an important process. Even for me, for example, I do not live in the United States anymore, but I’m still American. So I still have the right to vote and I am going to “exercise my right to vote”. So this is an expression that we use in English when you exercise your vote. I’m not talking about physical exercise. I mean, I’m going to do something. So if I have the right to vote, if I am able, I am going to exercise that right and I’m going to vote. So there are different ways that you can vote. You can vote by mail or you can vote in person. So if you vote in person, you go to the “voting station” on the day of the election, or there are dates where you can do “early voting”. So you either go on the early voting date or you go on Election Day, okay? Once you have registered, you go with your voting card and you have a card. All right. So if you go in person, you go to the voting station, and you are given a “ballot”. This is a piece of paper with the candidates names on it. So this works a little bit differently in every state. Sometimes it’s a piece of paper, and you write or you check the person you’re voting for. Sometimes you you enter it into a, like a computer. Okay, so this is a little bit different in each place, but this is how you vote in person. So you go into a private “voting booth” where no one can see what you are doing and you “cast your vote”. So to cast your vote is the action of voting. Okay, so you may have to put your vote into a “ballot box”. So that’s where you take the piece of paper when you have marked it, you put it in the ballot box. Or, if you vote by mail, that’s another option and that’s a popular one this year because of Coronavirus, people wanting to stay home, you can register by mail and you are mailed the ballot and so you vote at home and then you put your ballot in an envelope and you mail it to the address in order to vote Okay, so there’s vote by mail or vote in person. All right now, I just want to talk about some of the differences that makes the US a little bit special when it comes to elections, all right, because we have what’s called the “popular vote”, which is the people who they voted for the candidate they voted for. And then we have the “electoral vote”. So we have something that’s called the “Electoral College”, which is people chosen by each state. So again, I mentioned there are 50 states, so people choose these, the Electoral College, and they vote for the people. So they vote for who they think the people of their state want to vote for. Okay, so there’s two different votes. There’s the popular vote, the vote of the people and the electoral vote. Now, the one that counts in the end is actually the electoral vote and sometimes the electoral vote and the popular vote are not the same. So this has happened in the past, so, but the one that counts is the electoral one. So this is a system that started many, many years ago in the United States when it was formed. And this is something that has not changed. Maybe in the future it will. But for now, we have the popular vote, the electorate, the electoral vote, and the electoral vote is the final one. All right. So when a candidate is chosen on election day, they normally give an “acceptance speech”. Okay. So there have been some very famous acceptance speeches in the past, by, by the president, by the person chosen president, like Obama, for example, gave a very famous acceptance speech, so that’s something to watch for on Election Day. Normally, it happens very late because voting happens until the evening and then you have to count the votes. And then, once it is official, the winner goes out and gives their acceptance speech. Okay. And this person, although the election is in November, they do not actually start as President until January 20. So this day is called “Inauguration Day”. So this is when the current President leaves and the new President begins. Okay, so I know that was a lot of vocabulary. But hopefully that has cleared up some of your doubts about the election in English in the United States. This is a very different system, for example, from the UK. So maybe another day we will do a class with a British teacher explaining how their voting system works because it’s very different. Just tell me in the comments. Are you following the election? How does it work in your country? So what is the voting system like in your country? I’m really interested to hear because I know it’s different. Sometimes, like I mentioned, the term limits are different, like I said, a presidential term limit is eight years in the United States, two terms of four years, what is it like in your country? So explain a little bit in the comments. And if you have any questions, something that I forgot to mention, please let me know as well. So thank you for joining this class, and I look forward to seeing you back here next week. Take care. Bye!