Elections, explained (to kids)

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:

Will you support Vox’s explanatory journalism?

Most news outlets make their money through advertising or subscriptions. But when it comes to what we’re trying to do at Vox, there are a couple of big issues with relying on ads and subscriptions to keep the lights on:

First, advertising dollars go up and down with the economy. We often only know a few months out what our advertising revenue will be, which makes it hard to plan ahead.

Second, we’re not in the subscriptions business. Vox is here to help everyone understand the complex issues shaping the world — not just the people who can afford to pay for a subscription. We believe that’s an important part of building a more equal society. And we can’t do that if we have a paywall.

So even though advertising is still our biggest source of revenue, we also seek grants and reader support. (And no matter how our work is funded, we have strict guidelines on editorial independence.)

If you also believe that everyone deserves access to trusted high-quality information, will you make a gift to Vox today? Any amount helps.

One-Time Monthly Annual

$5/month

$10/month

$25/month

$50/month

Other

$

Yes, I'll give $5/month

Yes, I'll give $5/month

We accept credit card, Apple Pay, and Google Pay. You can also contribute via