Good morning everyone, since we are approaching the time to choose a candidate both for governing our state and our country I thought it might be a good idea to bring to front some relevant words to the theme:
The politician who wants a job in the government is called a candidate. The person who chooses him or her in an election is a voter. and all the people in a country who have the right to vote are called together the electorate.
When a candidate decides to be a candidate we can say that he is running for president, for example:
Marina Silva is running for president now that Eduardo Campo's died.
Eduardo Suplicy is running for senator.
Gilberto Kasssab is running for senator of São Paulo state.
It's important to note that we use run for a position. Like:
run for president
run for governor
run for senator
The same word goes when you choose your candidate, you should say vote for somebody; for example:
I'm going to vote for Eduardo Suplicy for senator.
I still haven't decided who I'm going to vote for in these elections.
The period of time we are in now is called in English run-up to the elections, this is when the candidates make their campaigns, talk to the voters and try to persuade the electorate to vote for them. During the run-up to the elections Brazilians must deal with intensive political propaganda on TV, radio, as well as debates with the main candidates.
On the day of the elections we must go to a polling place (this is a British term) and direct ourselves to a polling booth (a British and Canadian term for a voting booth), which is a compartment with one open side in which one voter at a time stands to mark their ballot (New Oxford American Dictionary).
The ballot is a synonym of vote, but it is also the name of the piece of paper on which we mark our vote. In Brazil we have a very modern voting system and we only need to press buttons. Our system is entirely computerized.
In our country a candidate for president, governor or even mayor of a city must have 50% + 1 of the votes. When this does not happen we have what is called a run-off election. A second chance for the 2 candidates who received the biggest number of votes in the first time.
When we read the news about who MIGHT win the elections, we are in fact reading survey results. Survey is like an investigation of the opinions or experience of a group of people, based on a series of questions (New Oxford American Dictionary).
Well, I guess this is the basic vocabulary.
How about you? Have you chosen your candidate yet?
