Nov 2, 2026 · 22 min · 9 segments
Tomorrow, the Americans go to the polls for the Midterms. And you’ve probably heard quite a bit about these elections already, either dripping through our media or via the internet in recent months…
Tom NicholasHost
But what on God's green earth actually is a midterm? So the first thing to understand about American elections is that, unlike in many European countries and more parliamentary systems across the world, American elections are strictly timetabled.
and in particular timetabled with the month before the date and with Sunday as the first day of the week.
Like here in the UK there is currently a bunch of debate about whether Andy Burnham, the Prime Minister, is likely to call an early election.
Some people think he might do so as early as this December, others think next May, despite the fact that he doesn't have to call one until as late as 2029.
Over in the US that ability to call an early election just isn't part of the system.
We know when every single election to the presidency and to the US Congress is going to happen for the next 100 years, 200 years, 1000 years, assuming there is an America in a thousand years time.
America didn't get the metric system and has spent the past couple of centuries determined to dismantle the wall between church and state, but they do have a perfectly timetabled election system, which feels very much like a kind of cult of reason type thing to have.
At the federal level, then, Americans vote every two years, always in an even year.
And those elections always take place on the first Tuesday of November, unless the first Tuesday of November is the 1st of November, in which case it happens on the 8th.
As you might know, American presidents are elected for four year terms, and those four year terms are entirely fixed to a kind of odd degree.
If the president dies or resigns, then they're replaced by the vice president who simply becomes the president of the United States until the end of the four year period that the original president was elected for.
LBJ took over after Kennedy was assassinated and Gerald Ford took over after Richard Nixon resigned.
What's even weirder is that should anything happen to them, it simply continues down what's called the presidential line of succession.
Like, there is legitimately a designated survivor-style situation which could take place, in which some horrific act led to the US Secretary of Housing and Urban Development becoming the President of the United States and having to do the rest of the term.
Look, we've all got a friend who refuses to deviate from whatever the original plan for, like, the night out or something was, regardless of how impractical prevailing circumstances have made that plan.
But what on God's green earth actually is a midterm? So the first thing to understand about American elections is that, unlike in many European countries and more parliamentary systems across the world, American elections are strictly timetabled.
and in particular timetabled with the month before the date and with Sunday as the first day of the week.
Like here in the UK there is currently a bunch of debate about whether Andy Burnham, the Prime Minister, is likely to call an early election.
Some people think he might do so as early as this December, others think next May, despite the fact that he doesn't have to call one until as late as 2029.
Over in the US that ability to call an early election just isn't part of the system.
We know when every single election to the presidency and to the US Congress is going to happen for the next 100 years, 200 years, 1000 years, assuming there is an America in a thousand years time.
America didn't get the metric system and has spent the past couple of centuries determined to dismantle the wall between church and state, but they do have a perfectly timetabled election system, which feels very much like a kind of cult of reason type thing to have.
At the federal level, then, Americans vote every two years, always in an even year.
And those elections always take place on the first Tuesday of November, unless the first Tuesday of November is the 1st of November, in which case it happens on the 8th.
As you might know, American presidents are elected for four year terms, and those four year terms are entirely fixed to a kind of odd degree.
If the president dies or resigns, then they're replaced by the vice president who simply becomes the president of the United States until the end of the four year period that the original president was elected for.
LBJ took over after Kennedy was assassinated and Gerald Ford took over after Richard Nixon resigned.
What's even weirder is that should anything happen to them, it simply continues down what's called the presidential line of succession.
Like, there is legitimately a designated survivor-style situation which could take place, in which some horrific act led to the US Secretary of Housing and Urban Development becoming the President of the United States and having to do the rest of the term.
Look, we've all got a friend who refuses to deviate from whatever the original plan for, like, the night out or something was, regardless of how impractical prevailing circumstances have made that plan.
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