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 a public elections to 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 in 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 popular

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.

Like the UK House of Commons the election system is first past the post so

the candidate with the most votes in each District wins a 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, theres always a midterm election in the middle of

the President's time in office. If the public thinks the President is 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 cools

the coffee, meaning that it's their job to scrutinize and question all proposals made

by both the House of Representatives 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 it's population and

again the first-past-the-post voting system is used so 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, host 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 their 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 the policies and their ideas for the whole country.

These campaigns cost money, lots of it, so both candidates have large campaign

teams who helped 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 for 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 received the most support and

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 US, a Democracy like the UK but on a much larger

scale.