Spanish vocabulary for US elections: essential terms and phrases

A hand casting a voting ballot

Who are we?

We are a Spanish language school that offers traditional, grammar-intensive live Spanish classes.

Learn more
Last updated Oct 4, 2025 • Reading time: 1 minute

Here's a list of presidential election related terms, in case you haven't talked about it enough in English and you want to also discuss it in Spanish.

Elecciones presidenciales (plural!) – Presidential election

El/la candidato/a – The candidate

La campaña – The campaign

El partido político – The political party

El voto – The vote/the ballot

Voto presencial – In-person vote

Voto por correo – Mail-in vote

Votar – To vote

Ganar – To win

La urna – The ballot box

El/la presidente/a – The president

El/la vicepresidente/a – The vicepresident

El debate – The debate

El/la moderador(a) – The moderator

Los votantes – The voters

Los estados “bisagra” – The swing states

Contar – Count

El recuento – The recount

Los resultados – The results

A false friend (sort of):

Colegio electoral (non capitalized) – School used as a polling place

Colegio Electoral (capitalized, and in US context) – Electoral College

Dan Berges
Dan Berges
Dan Berges is the Managing Director of Berges Institute.

Who are we?

We are a Spanish language school that offers traditional, grammar-intensive live Spanish classes.

Learn more

Recommended Articles