Phrases You Need to Understand the US Presidential Election in English | Go Natural English

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!