Chunk 1: In the beginning …
First, for you American electoral virgins out there, some background. Bear with me through this first chunk, you have to learn to walk before you can run ...
The United States has a different system for electing its government than us here in Australia. For a crash course in ours, you may want to consider visiting https://www.aph.gov.au/About_Parliament/Work_of_the_Parliament/Forming_and_Governing_a_Nation/parl or find some other lunatic's website.
In the US, it’s waaay different. For one thing, people get to vote directly for the individual they want to become president. It's called the Electoral College and it happens every four years. Let’s start there ...
Do you know why America is called the United States? Well, it's because it's a union of states, 50 in all, plus the District of Columbia.
During their election, each state is awarded a certain number of what they call "electoral college" votes based on that state's population.
For example, California has the largest population of any state in the US, so it has the most electoral college votes with 55, whereas somewhere much less populated, like Alaska, has only three electoral college votes.
In an election, it doesn't matter what % of the vote you get in a state, it's winner take all. For example, let's say you get 50.01% of the vote in Hawaii, then you get all four of their electoral votes. Congrats Mr Loser on your paltry 49.99%: you get nothing.
The total number of electoral college votes from all 50 US states adds up to 538. So, to win the presidency, you have to win just over half, or 270 votes. 270 is the magic number. Do that, and call the removalists because you're off the White House.
Make sense so far?
The US has two main political parties: the Republicans (they're the equivalent to our Liberal Party) and the Democrats (they're the equivalent of our Labor Party). There are other parties as well (Libertarians, Greens) but they're much smaller.
The 2020 Republican nominee for President is Donald Trump (orange skin, strange hair, wears really long ties) who is seeking re-election to his second four-year term. According to the US Constitution (that thing they sing about in “Hamilton”), a US president can only serve two, four year terms. The 2020 Democratic nominee for President is Joe Biden (really old, Obama's former vice-president).
Okay, so that was all pretty dry, I know. But it’ll get sexier from here. Chapter 2 to follow soon …
