Happy Independence Day!!

With that said I want to spend today’s post on a very hot topic in the United States right now. Can you guess what it is? It’s the general elections, of course! Every four years on the first Tuesday of November the American population goes to polling places (the polls) to vote. The word poll can be a noun or a verb.  As a verb it means to record an opinion or a vote.  This year’s election will take place on November 6^th.

This is another important language lesson. When you say the date in English you don’t say “Day 6 of November” as you would in Portuguese. We use ordinal numbers to describe dates. This can see confusing but it uses the same principle as does Portuguese.  In Portuguese, for example, Segunda is written 2^da (using the number being described and the last letters of the word).  In English second is written 2^nd (again using the number 2 and the last two letters of the word).  The other endings are –st, -rd, and –th. (1^st First, Third 3^rd, 4^th- Fourth).  The numbers five through ten all use the –th ending.

In Brazil it is illegal not to vote.  In the United States on the other hand, candidates spend a lot of time and money trying to convince people to vote at all.  If you remember my post about sufferage http://etauft.blogspot.com.br/2012/07/seneca-falls.html, you’ll remember that many people did not have the right to vote in the past.  Men of color and all women worked hard and died for this right.  This is why I think it’s unfortunate that many people who can vote do not vote.

The United States has two major political parties: Democratic and Republican. Last week was the Republican National Convention and this week was the Democratic National Convention.  At each of these conventions there are really important speeches given. The Democratic presidential candidate is the current president (Barack Obama). The Republican presidential candidate is Mitt Romney.  Even in the United States many people think that these are the only two political parties but they’re not.  There is also a Libertarian Party, a Green Party, and a Constitution Party.  As of November 2011, there’s also a Justice Party.

The simplest way to explain our voting system is that people have votes and states have votes. States with more people get more votes. States vote for the candidate that the majority of its population voted for. The person with the most state votes wins.  (The system is actually much more complex, but this is the general idea)

So there you have it. What is the election process like in Brazil?? E-mail me at etauft@gmail.com or post a response below.