For my second key insight, I have selected a chapter from my POLI 201 class, which was titled as “The Presidency". In that chapter we covered what the electoral college is and how the people vote and indirectly select a candidate for being a president. I learned how a candidate can only win the elections if he/she gets of at least 270 electoral college votes. That gave me an idea of how the presidential election takes place and how it occurs every four years on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November. 

 

For me, the American political system was completely new. As I was raised in India I had known about Indian politics, and they are completely different. In 2020, when the Presidential elections took place, I knew how it works because I had already learned it. I used to watch news channels, internet, and my colleagues talking about it. Viewing the two red and blue lines on the TV screen could seem confusing to someone who is completely unaware about how the election works. I would remember from the lecture about the Senate and House of Representatives and how each state’s vote count. Having previous knowledge about the American presidential election from discussing with my family and friends, I found it very interesting. American presidential elections are a big thing not only for America but for many other countries as well. I saw the foreign interest people had through the news articles and memes on social media. I thought it would be very systematic as other process in the United States work, but this year’s election was very uncommon. I was very interested in the news channels and checking the graph every now and then. Because of COVID this year, the election results were delayed as people voted through mailing ballots. After the delayed results, there was a conspiracy about a fraudulent election result. 

 

As I am new to America and am still learning new things every day, this chapter helped me to understand and reflect on our recent presidential elections in 2020. I learned many things that took place in the 2020 election but also learned about some uncertainties that can arise, like a candidate blaming the other candidate for fraudulent votes which delayed election results and caused anxiety and stress for many.