How to talk to your little ones about voting

It is (almost) Election Day in America. Citizens in the United States will soon start lining up cast their vote − Some have even done that already! Ballots completed through Tuesday will decide who becomes the candidate 47th President and who helps make the laws together with them Congress.

From the radio to the television to the dinner table, you may have heard people predict who is going to win and explain why. But the truth is: no one knows yet!

And they won’t. To Americans have their say. Here’s a quick explanation of how that works.

Why is voting important?

To vote is how the American people make their voices heard. It’s also how we hire and fire our elected officials. That technically means the president works for us! So when we go to the polling booth to vote, we choose to give power to someone we want to represent, or take that power away from someone we don’t want.

Not everyone around the world can vote, which is why many Americans consider it a privilege. Lives in a democracy means having the opportunity to influence the laws that govern the country and the people who make those laws.

How does the election work?

Although America is a democracy, it is not a direct democracy, meaning that elections are not simply decided by whoever gets the most votes. In both 2016 and 2000, the candidates who ultimately won the elections lost the popular vote, meaning they received fewer total votes than their opponent.

Citizens also do not vote on every single law. They elect representatives to do that.

The presidential election process works the same way. To elect a president, America uses the Electoral College. Each state has a certain number of “electors,” which is equal to the number of representatives they have in Congress. Those voters traditionally cast their votes for the candidate who won the most votes in their state.

Maine and Nebraska split their electoral votes, meaning the process is a little more complicated and not all votes automatically go to whoever wins the most votes across the state.

To win the electoral college you need 270 electoral votes.

What two political parties are there?

Trick question, there are many political parties! The Green Party, the Libertarian Party, and even the Communist Party all have a presence in the United States.

However, the two major political parties are the Republicans and the Democrats. Every president elected in America since the late 19th century has belonged to one of those parties.

That’s why halfway through election night you see maps with states colored red for Republicans and blue for Democrats, indicating which party’s nominee won in that area.

Why a donkey and an elephant?

In addition to red and blue, Republicans and Democrats are also symbolized by the elephant and the donkey. The animal logos date from the 19th century, History Channel reports this. In 1828, opponents of then-candidate Andrew Jackson called him a swear word describing a donkey. Instead of being angry, Jackson showed he was in on the joke and used a photo of a donkey on his campaign posters.

Then Thomas Nast, who drew cartoons in the 1870s, started using the symbol for the entire Democratic party, and it caught on!

As for the elephant, it really caught on when Nast used it in a cartoon Harper’s Weekly in 1874, The History Channel reports.

What is Congress?

Congress is the umbrella name for both the Senate and the House of Representatives, which form the legislative branch of the federal government.

Each state has two senators, some of whom are running for re-election, just like Kamala Harris this year. The number of representatives a state has is based on the number of people living there, and this year all 435 are on the electoral roll in each of their states.

Who is running for president?

This year it is likely that Kamala Harris or Donald Trump will win the election for president.