Hello Naturals, how are you?
I'm your English teacher Gabby, and I was just doing some research
about a question that a member of our Go Natural
English community asked me. See, I'm coming to you today from
a special place because I want to talk to you about the
United States Presidential Elections and a member of our
community named Mohammed asked me about what is
the electoral college. So I'd like to try to explain
that to you today and also another phrase
called "swing state." I think these are very
interesting and they'll help us to have more interesting conversations
in English about politics. So let's start
with the electoral college. Here's how
I'd like us to think about this. Imagine that
we the voters in the United States are like
a bunch of kids in a big family.
We can ask for the things that we want but
in the end it's our parents who will decide.
So the electrical -- not electrical -- electoral college
is kind of like our parents.
That's at least how I'd like to think of it. I think that's a simple way
to understand what's going on. So the people of the United States
can vote -- women, men, anyone
over 18 years of age can vote, regardless
of your color, as long as you are a US Citizen
you can vote for president. That's a great thing.
Most people think that it's the people that directly
elect the president. It's not direct. It's more indirect because
after the people vote the electoral
college in each state
takes that as a strong suggestion and usually follows
it, passing on their vote
for the president. So what I mean by that is that
they understand OK, the majority of people in our
state want this candidate
to be president. So we respect that and we're going
to vote for this person and tell the government
that we want this person. So most of the time the electoral
college -- I don't know why I keep wanting to say electrical --
the electoral college will
agree with the people, the voters, the population.
Now, here's the interesting thing. Each state,
there's 50 states in the US plus we have the District of Columbia,
and they all have
a certain number of members of
the electoral college and
that depends on the number of members of
congress that each state has. So it depends.
Some states have, like California has
55 members (I mean electoral votes), but Washington D.C. has three.
It's really interesting because each state is a
little bit different. Now let's talk about a swing state.
What is a "swing state?" Well this is a state
that's not clearly historically
one party or the other. We usually have
democrat and republican parties for American
elections. And most states are clearly historically
for one or the other but some states
are not so clearly defined and that's what we would call
a swing state, so presidential candidates work
hard to win over those swing states that could make a big
difference in the election for them. So
I'm going to end there. I hope that this was helpful and I hope that
now you'll be able to use these phrases in your discussions in English
about politics and the United States
Presidential Election. That's so much for watching and if you'd like to
learn more with me as your English teacher to develop your
fluency, then come to GoNaturalEnglish.com
where I have premium courses that you can join and work
with me on your English. That's so much and I'll talk to you soon.
Bye for now!