There are vast differences between the American and Australian electoral systems — and it's not just calling the humble democracy sausage a democracy hot dog.

Here are four of the biggest differences, and how they compare to the Australian system.

Marginal electorates vs swing states

A swing state is one that has historically flipped between the Republican and Democratic parties.

Winning the swing states is extremely important for any candidate wanting to be president.

Why? Professor Brendon O'Connor from the United States Studies Centre at the University of Sydney says American elections are pretty predictable. Many states like California (Democratic) or Texas (Republican) just reliably vote one way or another.

That means that the few states that do flip back and forth are where the election is won or lost, and they're hotly contested.

There's no official list of the swing states, especially in a year where Donald Trump is upsetting the electoral apple cart.

The swing states: Colorado

Colorado Florida

Florida Iowa

Iowa Michigan

Michigan Nevada

Nevada New Hampshire

New Hampshire North Carolina

North Carolina Ohio

Ohio Pennsylvania

Pennsylvania Virginia

Virginia Wisconsin (According to Politico)

But American outlet Politico has named 11 states they think are up for grabs.

The polling experts at FiveThirtyEight add four more into that mix.

Professor O'Connor says the number could be narrowed, cutting out states worth only a few votes in the Electoral College (more on this later).

"You can narrow it down to five states with a few others in the mix," he said.

He names Ohio, Florida, Colorado, Virginia and North Carolina as the states that truly matter, worth 84 votes in total.

So, what about marginal seats?

Well before the last election the Australian Electoral Commission defined 62 seats out of our 150-seat parliament as marginal.

So about 40 per cent of the seats were considered up for grabs at the last Australian election.

And in America?

"We're talking more like 15 per cent of the states," Professor O'Connor said.

That means candidates have to compete in a much smaller percentage of the electorate in America.

Seats in parliament vs the electoral college

For the long explanation, check out this piece by ABC's North America correspondent Michael Vincent on the electoral college system.

TL;DR? Each of the 50 states is worth a certain number of votes (roughly proportional to population). There are 538 in total. A candidate needs 270 to win the presidency.

Professor O'Connor says the "votes" we're talking about are actually people.

"Say you've got three electoral college votes from Wyoming. Those three votes are three electors," he said.

It means the popular vote doesn't directly elect the president (and why those swing states we talked about earlier really matter), but Americans do have direct control over the decision.

So, what about seats in Parliament?

As voters, Australians don't have control over the Prime Minister we elect.

The party that wins the majority seats in our 150-seat House of Representatives chooses a Prime Minister.

It can be tough to draw comparisons, because as one of the earliest democratic experiments, America's electoral college is unique.

"It's like baseball or cricket, it's got arcane kind of rules and statistics," Professor O'Connor said.

But he says the state-by-state approach reflects America's identity as the "United States" from the 18th century.

And in the 21st century, that approach might have done its dash, according to Professor O'Connor.

"A preferable system would just be a national vote — so the candidate that got the most votes across the whole of America. Every vote would count more in that regard," he said.

Compulsory vs non-compulsory voting

This is the issue which chief executive of the United States Studies Centre Professor Simon Jackman says is "probably the single biggest difference" between the US and Australia when it comes to voting.

If you don't want to vote in America, you don't have to.

At the last presidential election in 2012, the Bipartisan Policy Centre found only 57.2 per cent of eligible citizens voted.

That has big ramifications for the whole electoral system, and one of the biggest is this acronym: GOTV.

Translation: Get Out The Vote.

We're talking huge amounts of sophisticated statistics and data, opening store fronts and down to the "neighbourhood level", literally knocking on people's front doors to remind them to vote, organising buses to get them to polling stations.

"It's difficult for Australians to envisage what that looks like," Professor Jackman said.

So, what about compulsory voting in Australia?

As of the 2016 election, 95.4 per cent of eligible Australians were enrolled to vote.

And according to Professor Jackman, that means GOTV operations in Australia just aren't as necessary for our political parties. They know you're probably going to vote. Because you have to.

"Boy oh boy, compulsory voting just makes their [political parties'] jobs so much easier," he said.

How to vote in Australia vs how to vote in America

So, how do Americans actually cast a ballot?

"It depends," is the simple answer according to Professor Jackman.

"It varies county by county."

You might tick a box with a pencil. Or you might fill in a bubble sheet (kinda like the ones you got with standardised tests in school). You could push a button on a machine, which punches holes in a ballot. (Hanging chad anyone?)

And it's not just the presidency that's at stake here either. Americans will be voting on a whole range of things on November 8, depending on where they live.

"Everything from county judges, water commissioners and then in California a whole bunch of ballots propositions — should the porn industry be compelled to use condoms?" Professor Jackman said.

And that means things get pretty complicated.

"I just got my absentee ballot from where I used to live in California," Professor Jackman said.

"It's eight pages long."

The vote is also always on a Tuesday, meaning many Americans have to juggle work and long lines at polling booths.

So, what about voting in Australia?



You might think it's a pain, but by comparison, the system we have to cast a vote is super easy, and that's by design.

"One of the great things about compulsory voting, you've got to have simple voting," Professor Jackman said.

"Voting in Australia is simple. It's on a Saturday, you can pretty much do it anywhere, you can pre-poll. And it all looks the same."