Hello Monica! I'm going to give you a very quick and simplified explanation on American politics. At the national level, there is the House of Representatives and the Senate. If both the House and the Senate vote for a bill then the bill is sent to the president. If the president signs the bill then the bill becomes a law.
Every state gets two senators in the Senate, and the population of a state determines its amount of representatives in the House of Representatives. Senators serve for six years, but it's staggered so instead of every six years every senator is up for reelection, every two years a third of all senators are up for reelection. Representatives serve for two years, so every two years they're all up for reelection. The president serves for four years and can serve up to two four year terms.
The presidential election was two years ago. We also voted on representatives then and a third of us voted on senators. It's two years later so we're voting again. However, we're not voting on the president so this is called a Midterm Election (it being in the middle of the president's term). So today we are all voting on our representatives and a third of us are voting on senators.
That's the national level and what people are mostly concerned about. If I ended the explanation there you would be sufficiently knowledgeable about what's going on today. So if you don't want to listen to the rest then you don't have to.
There's also the state level of government. Some states are voting for new governors (they're like the president, but only of a specific state). There are also votes on state Senates and House of Representatives.
There are also more local elections, such as mayors in some cities, that can be voted on today.
Finally, there are some local and state laws that can be voted on. Such as, "Do you approve of a 1 cent tax increase in order to pay for this building?" I'm not sure how they decide what laws they send directly to the ballot and what laws they don't, but they are always a few.
One more thing, you may have heard of the Electoral College two years ago during the presidential election. That's not a thing in Midterm Elections, so don't worry about that.
Anon2 really summed up our election system well. I'm not sure how other countries handle political advertisements, but here, they can really come close to flat-out lies due to heavy misrepresentation of facts (to the point that I'm amazed that those creating them aren't sued for libel or slander depending on the form of media the ad is dispersed in). They start them at least a month in advance of the elections, so everyone is glad when we're finally free of them.
Hi Anon2!
Thank you so much for your description of our election process! I couldn't have said it better myself. :)
5 comments:
THIS IS SOOOOOO OOOOOHHH CUUUUUUTTTTTTEEE
Non-american here, why is this so relevant in USA? I've se en this day marked everywhere and I don't know why.
Hello Monica! I'm going to give you a very quick and simplified explanation on American politics. At the national level, there is the House of Representatives and the Senate. If both the House and the Senate vote for a bill then the bill is sent to the president. If the president signs the bill then the bill becomes a law.
Every state gets two senators in the Senate, and the population of a state determines its amount of representatives in the House of Representatives. Senators serve for six years, but it's staggered so instead of every six years every senator is up for reelection, every two years a third of all senators are up for reelection. Representatives serve for two years, so every two years they're all up for reelection. The president serves for four years and can serve up to two four year terms.
The presidential election was two years ago. We also voted on representatives then and a third of us voted on senators. It's two years later so we're voting again. However, we're not voting on the president so this is called a Midterm Election (it being in the middle of the president's term). So today we are all voting on our representatives and a third of us are voting on senators.
That's the national level and what people are mostly concerned about. If I ended the explanation there you would be sufficiently knowledgeable about what's going on today. So if you don't want to listen to the rest then you don't have to.
There's also the state level of government. Some states are voting for new governors (they're like the president, but only of a specific state). There are also votes on state Senates and House of Representatives.
There are also more local elections, such as mayors in some cities, that can be voted on today.
Finally, there are some local and state laws that can be voted on. Such as, "Do you approve of a 1 cent tax increase in order to pay for this building?" I'm not sure how they decide what laws they send directly to the ballot and what laws they don't, but they are always a few.
One more thing, you may have heard of the Electoral College two years ago during the presidential election. That's not a thing in Midterm Elections, so don't worry about that.
Thank you so much anon!
Hi Anon1!
Aww, thanks--glad you liked it! :)
Hi Mónica!
Anon2 really summed up our election system well.
I'm not sure how other countries handle political advertisements, but here, they can really come close to flat-out lies due to heavy misrepresentation of facts (to the point that I'm amazed that those creating them aren't sued for libel or slander depending on the form of media the ad is dispersed in). They start them at least a month in advance of the elections, so everyone is glad when we're finally free of them.
Hi Anon2!
Thank you so much for your description of our election process! I couldn't have said it better myself. :)
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