279 Elternbrief gesamt.pdf - Tausgymnasium Backnang

American elections
What do you know about America? These were the introductory words by Mr. Jimenez who
informed us, the 10 th grade, for 2 hours about America’s election system.
He started by telling us about how to become president whereupon lots of us were
disappointed, because just people who are born as a natural US citizen can be president☺.
He went on with describing every single step to becoming president: from the primary
election via the debate to the point of the “real” election. It’s a long and very expensive way.
The people who vote for one of the candidates have to register before they can go to the
polls and they must even have a clean criminal record. Another big difference to Germany is
the Electoral College: It’s a body of electors chosen by the voters in each state to elect the
President and vice President of the US. Lots of people wonder why there is the Electoral
College as this way of voting is often criticized because someone can become president
although he/she was not elected by the majority of America’s population.
We got also some information about this year’s candidates: Barack Obama and Mitt Romney
and about the situation of the Latinos because meanwhile they’re a big part of the US
population and they have an impact on the outcome of the election.
At the end of the presentation we were offered to ask some questions and everyone agreed
that we were all well prepared for the election on 6 th November 2012.
Johanna Bayón, 10c