In the United States, there are presidential elections every four years, but in between those every two years there are midterm elections,

thus called because they're held about midway through a president's term in office,

that determine the fortunes of all 435 seats of the House of Representatives,

and either 33 or 34, depending on the election, of the 100 total seats in the U.S. Senate. And the House and Senate are the two bodies that make up the U.S. Congress.

At these same midterm elections, 34 of the 50 total U.S. states elect their governors, all but Vermont and New Hampshire for four-year terms.

Those two states elect for only two-year terms.

And many states also load the ballots with elections for state legislature, also called

General Assembly positions.

Alongside those larger candidate-focused races, there are also smaller government office elections,

so treasurer, sheriff, things like that, and citizen initiatives, sometimes called state ballot

measures, which cover issues like the legalization of various currently illicit substances,

decisions on new taxes, voting-related issues, and other things of that nature.

On top of all that, there are also sometimes special elections for senators, governors, or other folks who are either only elected for a couple of years at a time,

as is the case in Vermont and New Hampshire, or to fill a seat if said seat has been cleared

recently by a scandal or death or other seat vacating event. So these midterms are a pretty big

deal in the sense that they determine a lot of the nuts and bolts operation of individual states

in particular, and because of how state operations go on to influence national happenings.

And this is more directly the case for those congressional seats, as those Congresspeople actually go to work in Congress in Washington, D.C.

But it's true of mayors and governors as well, as they can choose to support or not support federal-level proposals.

Despite that fundamental importance to the functionality of government, including a whole lot of very practical outcomes of how governance is conducted, though,

voter turnout for midterm elections tends to be substantially lower than voter turnout for presidential elections.

Now I should note, to be clear here, this is the case in the United States, which lags significantly

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