--- title: US elections and the president, as reported — a lesson of Mova's school · trees and pragmatics description: «US elections and the president, as reported», a lesson of the politics course of Mova's primary school, sentence by sentence with dependency trees and pragmatics. It begins: Each state is a match worth a number of "electors", bigger states are worth more, and in almost every state the winner takes --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/politics/16-us-elections-and-the-president-as-reported/) [home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/) / [Politics](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/politics/) / US elections and the president, as rep… # US elections and the president, as reported Lesson 16 of the politics course of Mova's primary school: 21 sentences, each with its syntax tree and pragmatics. The lessons are written for Mova, and their agreed trees are part of Mova corpus 0.4 (CC BY-SA 4.0). How Mova does on its tests: [the lesson at school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/school-run/politics/16-us-elections-and-the-president-as-reported/). - [1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/politics/16-us-elections-and-the-president-as-reported/1/) — Each state is a match worth a number of "electors", bigger states are worth more, and in almost every state the winner takes all of them. - [2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/politics/16-us-elections-and-the-president-as-reported/2/) — Whoever reaches 270 of the 538 electors becomes president. - [3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/politics/16-us-elections-and-the-president-as-reported/3/) — That is why the map on election night turns states red or blue: red usually means the Republicans, whose symbol is an elephant, and blue the Democrats, whose symbol is a donkey. - [5](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/politics/16-us-elections-and-the-president-as-reported/5/) — Recent elections have been hard-fought, and on the hardest moments Americans still use very different words. - [6](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/politics/16-us-elections-and-the-president-as-reported/6/) — This lesson says what was reported, gives each side in its own best words, and does not pick one. - [7](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/politics/16-us-elections-and-the-president-as-reported/7/) — A good habit for loud dinners: ask "which decision do you mean?", tell opinions from facts, and check a clip twice if it makes you very angry. - [8](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/politics/16-us-elections-and-the-president-as-reported/8/) — Kids and grown-ups talk about it in their own slang: "y'all" means you all, "fixin' to" means about to (in the South), "delulu" means believing something that is not real, "ate" means did really well, and "rizz" means charm. - [9](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/politics/16-us-elections-and-the-president-as-reported/9/) — The US president is chosen by the Electoral College: each state has a number of electors, most states give all of theirs to the winner there, and 270 of the 538 electors are needed to win. - [10](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/politics/16-us-elections-and-the-president-as-reported/10/) — Some say the Electoral College makes candidates care about small states; others say it is unfair because a vote can count for more in one state than another. - [11](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/politics/16-us-elections-and-the-president-as-reported/11/) — Swing states could be won by either party, so both sides pour adverts and visits into them; recent ones have included Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, Georgia and Arizona. - [12](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/politics/16-us-elections-and-the-president-as-reported/12/) — In 2016, it was reported, Hillary Clinton got about three million more votes nationwide than Donald Trump but lost, because he won more electors; this also happened in 2000. - [13](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/politics/16-us-elections-and-the-president-as-reported/13/) — News reports said Joe Biden won the 2020 election with 306 electors to Donald Trump's 232; Mr Trump and his supporters said there had been cheating. - [14](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/politics/16-us-elections-and-the-president-as-reported/14/) — It was reported that recounts, audits (careful checks) and dozens of court cases did not find fraud, meaning cheating, big enough to change the 2020 result, and Congress certified it, which means officially confirmed it; some people say they still have doubts and want stricter rules such as more ID checks. - [15](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/politics/16-us-elections-and-the-president-as-reported/15/) — On 6 January 2021, news reports said, while Congress met to confirm the result, a crowd of Donald Trump's supporters broke into the Capitol; people were hurt, and Congress finished confirming Joe Biden's win that night. - [16](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/politics/16-us-elections-and-the-president-as-reported/16/) — Some call 6 January a dangerous attack on democracy; others say most people there were protesters who felt unheard; it was reported that in January 2025 President Trump pardoned most of those charged, which means he cancelled their punishment. - [17](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/politics/16-us-elections-and-the-president-as-reported/17/) — News reports said Donald Trump won the 2024 election against Kamala Harris, winning the main swing states and the most votes nationwide; his second term began in January 2025. - [18](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/politics/16-us-elections-and-the-president-as-reported/18/) — Mr Trump, president before from 2017 to 2021, is one of only two presidents to serve two terms that were not one after the other. - [19](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/politics/16-us-elections-and-the-president-as-reported/19/) — A new president's term starts on Inauguration Day, 20 January, with an oath to "preserve, protect and defend" the Constitution; in 2025 it was reported the ceremony was moved indoors because of the cold. - [20](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/politics/16-us-elections-and-the-president-as-reported/20/) — The two big parties are the Democrats, who often favour more government help and rules, and the Republicans, who often favour lower taxes and smaller government; other parties almost never win the big races. - [21](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/politics/16-us-elections-and-the-president-as-reported/21/) — Words like "saving the country" and "wrecking it" are opinions; a fact can be checked and shown true or false. - [22](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/politics/16-us-elections-and-the-president-as-reported/22/) — Videos can be cut, sped up or made by computers; check whether news sites from different sides reported a clip, and look for the full video. - ← previous: [Grandma and Uncle on opposite sides: staying friends](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/politics/15-grandma-and-uncle-on-opposite-sides-staying-friends/) - next →: [UK elections and the prime minister, as reported](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/politics/17-uk-elections-and-the-prime-minister-as-reported/) - ↑ back to [Politics](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/politics/)