US Elections - How do they work? Video Lecture | How does UK Parliament's Education Service works? - Personal Learning

the US Congress and presidential
elections voting the people's chance to
decide who they want to run their
country and represent their interests
but how does it work in the United
States of America across the pond voting
is quite different like the UK
Parliament the United States Congress
has two houses the House of
Representatives and the Senate unlike
the UK there are public elections for
both houses and a third separate
election is held to choose a president
in the US the president is both the head
of state and the head of government in
the UK these roles are carried out
separately by the monarch and the Prime
Minister the House of Representatives in
the US Congress is designed to give a
voice to the people of every local
voting region of America members of the
House of Representatives stand for
re-election every two years each state
is split into districts and each
district votes for one representative
the number of districts depends on the
population of each state for example
California the most populous state is
split into 53 districts so has 53
representatives but Alaska which is huge
but has a really small population only
has one district and therefore only one
representative in the house by the UK
House of Commons the election system is
first-past-the-post so the candidate
with the most votes in each district
wins the seat in the House of
Representatives the party that wins a
majority of seats in the house takes
control the ideal situation for a
president is that the house is
controlled by their own party
however with elections held every two
years there's always a midterm election
in the middle of a president's time in
office if the public thinks that the
president's not doing a great job they
can vote in more members of the
opposition party making it more
difficult for the president to pass laws
the Senate in the US Congress like the
House of Lords in the UK Parliament is
sometimes called the upper house George
Washington described the Senate as the
saucer that calls the coffee meaning
that it's their job to scrutinize and
question all proposals made by both a
House of Representative
and the president before voting to
decide whether they should proceed as
law senators like members of the House
of Representatives are also elected to
their seats by the public senators serve
six-year terms and elections are
staggered so every two years a third of
the Senators run for re-election each
state is represented by two senators
regardless of its population and again
the first-past-the-post voting system is
used to the candidate with the most
votes wins so how do Americans choose
their leader
well presidential elections take place
every four years the two main parties
the Democrats and the Republicans post
big get-togethers where they choose
their presidential candidates the person
they think will be the best leader for
the nation the winning candidate then
chooses their vice presidential
candidate also known as their running
mate to help support the campaign
presidential candidates usually choose
someone with different areas of skill or
knowledge so they present voters with
the best package together they're known
as a ticket presidential candidates from
both parties then start out on massive
election campaigns to gain as much voter
support as possible they travel across
the country and hold great big campaign
rallies where they set out their
policies and their ideas for the whole
country these campaigns cost money lots
of it so both candidates have large
campaign teams who help raise the tens
of millions of dollars needed to keep
them afloat when it comes to election
day the public go to the polls to vote
for one presidential ticket so far so
easy however the public don't vote
directly for their choice of president
instead a system called the Electoral
College is used each state is allocated
a number of electors that will make the
final choice a state has the same number
of electors as it does Senators and
Representatives in most states all the
electors will vote for the presidential
ticket which receive the most support in
public vote finally the presidential
ticket with the most electoral college
votes becomes president and vice
president of the United States of
America so that's how things work in the
u.s. a democracy like the UK but on a
much larger scale