US Presidential Election explained (explainity® explainer video) — Transcript

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1. 0:00[Music]
2. 0:06it's that time again
3. 0:08the united states presidential election
4. 0:11is around the corner
5. 0:13every four years the american people
6. 0:15decide whether a
7. 0:16democrat or a republican gets to live in
8. 0:19the white house for the next four years
9. 0:22but how exactly does the united states
10. 0:25presidential election
11. 0:26work well to understand this we have to
12. 0:29take a closer look at the entire
13. 0:31election year it all starts with
14. 0:34the primaries in which democrats and
15. 0:37republicans
16. 0:38each decide who is going to be their
17. 0:40presidential candidate
18. 0:43how the primaries work and who is
19. 0:45eligible to vote in them
20. 0:47varies from state to state in some
21. 0:50states
22. 0:51every registered voter is allowed to
23. 0:53vote
24. 0:54in others only voters registered with a
25. 0:57particular
26. 0:58party can cast a ballot in that party's
27. 1:00primary
28. 1:02even the dates the primaries are held
29. 1:04are different in each state
30. 1:06although there are some cluster primary
31. 1:08dates
32. 1:09for example super tuesday on super
33. 1:12tuesday
34. 1:13multiple states hold their primary
35. 1:17and it gets even more complicated than
36. 1:19that because the people don't actually
37. 1:21elect the presidential candidate
38. 1:23directly with their vote they are
39. 1:26technically electing
40. 1:27delegates who in turn will support a
41. 1:30certain candidate
42. 1:32in a primary each candidate is awarded a
43. 1:34certain amount of delegates
44. 1:36or representatives based on the amount
45. 1:39of votes they receive
46. 1:41those delegates will later vote for
47. 1:43their assigned candidate
48. 1:46once the delegates from the various
49. 1:48primaries have been awarded
50. 1:49you can already get a good sense of who
51. 1:51will become the presidential candidate
52. 1:54however the delegates don't officially
53. 1:56vote for their candidates
54. 1:58until the national convention in the end
55. 2:01a candidate must receive over half of
56. 2:03the delegate votes to win the party's
57. 2:06nomination
58. 2:08if no candidate receives over half of
59. 2:10the delegate votes at the convention
60. 2:12the party renegotiates its entries into
61. 2:14the presidential race
62. 2:16additionally sometimes candidates will
63. 2:19end their presidential bids
64. 2:21and then the delegates will have to vote
65. 2:23again
66. 2:24in that case the delegates don't
67. 2:27necessarily have to vote for
68. 2:28their candidates again but are now free
69. 2:31to choose whomever they like
70. 2:33this procedure continues until a
71. 2:35presidential candidate has been found
72. 2:39once the two parties have officially
73. 2:41chosen who is going
74. 2:42head-to-head in the presidential race
75. 2:45the actual
76. 2:46general election is held on the tuesday
77. 2:48after the first monday
78. 2:50in november registered voters over 18
79. 2:53get to vote for their president on that
80. 2:55day
81. 2:56however similar to the primaries the
82. 2:59president
83. 3:00is not elected directly here either
84. 3:04the vote tally for each candidate
85. 3:06determines how many
86. 3:07electors are awarded to that candidate
87. 3:11these electors will then elect the
88. 3:13candidate
89. 3:15each state has a different number of
90. 3:17electors depending on how many people
91. 3:19live in that state
92. 3:21but the electors cannot simply vote for
93. 3:23the candidate they wish
94. 3:25in 48 of the 50 states the elector tally
95. 3:29is awarded
96. 3:30winner take all this means the winner of
97. 3:33that state
98. 3:34gets all the votes from that state let's
99. 3:37say a state has
100. 3:3810 electors if at the end of the voting
101. 3:41day
102. 3:42the tally awards six electors to the
103. 3:45democratic candidate
104. 3:46and four to the republican the democrat
105. 3:49has won the election in this state
106. 3:51and gets all 10 votes while the
107. 3:54republican
108. 3:55gets nothing the winner takes all
109. 3:58this is why in so-called swing states
110. 4:01states in which both parties have an
111. 4:03equally high chance of taking the win
112. 4:06candidates are campaigning harder than
113. 4:07in other states
114. 4:09it is hard to predict the electoral
115. 4:11outcome pre-election
116. 4:13in these states there is a total of 535
117. 4:17electors the candidate who can secure
118. 4:20more than half of the electoral vote
119. 4:22has won the election this is why
120. 4:25electors from the swing states
121. 4:27are especially important once the
122. 4:30electors have been awarded
123. 4:31it is basically clear who will be the
124. 4:34next president of the united states
125. 4:36while officially the decision is only
126. 4:38made by the electoral college
127. 4:40which is the body made up of the awarded
128. 4:43electors
129. 4:45this is usually 41 days after election
130. 4:48day
131. 4:49on that day the electors vote in their
132. 4:51states
133. 4:52these votes are then counted in congress
134. 4:55around the beginning
135. 4:56of january and it is in congress too
136. 4:59where the next occupant of the white
137. 5:01house is later
138. 5:02officially announced finally
139. 5:05the inauguration of the next president
140. 5:07takes place on january 20th
141. 5:10to formally end the election year