Elections, explained (to kids)

Supporters of one-time Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Kamala Harris hold placards during a campaign rally in Los Angeles in 2019. | Ronen Tivony/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images

Today, Explained to Kids heads back to the Island of Explained to witness the island’s presidential election.

Although the 2020 presidential election is still a few months away in the US, voters on the Island of Explained are headed to the polls today to pick their new president and decide which party (the Now Party or the Later Party) will carry the day.

In the second of four episodes of Today, Explained to Kids: Summer Camp, Vox’s explainer podcast series for kids, we head back to the island to learn about political parties (wait, there’s no cake?) and listen in to a debate between the island’s two presidential candidates. We also talk to Vox political reporter and Island librarian Li Zhou to find out why the Island of Explained, and the US, count electoral votes rather than the popular vote and whether that system gives the people more, or less, power.

Listen to the episode with the young people in your life — or just because — and then come back here to download our episode discussion guide and a fun experiment in phone banking you can do with kids (or, again, by yourself) that builds on what we learned in the episode.

Grown-ups: The discussion guide introduces kids to the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and encourages families and educators to explore present-day challenges to voting rights with the young people in your lives.

Thanks to early childhood education specialists Rachel Giannini and Saleem Hue Penny for developing our learning materials!

Listen to more Today, Explained to Kids episodes:

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