Understanding American politics is complicated but an interactive event Wednesday will help locals make sense of the process.
As UNBC professor Tracy Summerville started tackling the election in her weekly Citizen column, she found people would stop her around town with still more questions.
Ahead of next Tuesday's election - and one of the more bizarre and contentious campaigns - Summerville and Citizen editor Neil Godbout thought it would be interesting and fun to act out the unique system.
"It's complicated and pretty foreign from what we have in Canada. It's not really anywhere else," she said. "It was based on... a unique model to recognize the importance of each singular state to vote in the executive."
On Wednesday night at the Prince George Public Library's downtown branch, participants will act out a caucus, gain insight into the primaries and electoral college and follow along with detailed maps to see exactly how a president is elected.
"People are often surprised by the complexity of the system and how varied the approach is state-by-state," she said.
"We think of it as a very democratic process."
Most think, following along with coverage, people mark their ballots and collectively the population elects a president.
"But they don't. There's a step in between. They're deciding who their electors will vote for.
"There's always been that interesting tension in the liberal democracies to have the slight distrust of the population," she said, explaining that extra step can be viewed as a check although it isn't used.
While Canadians always keep an eye south, Summerville said she's found interest has spiked ever since Barack Obama's campaign started. The potential for a first African American president - and now a first woman president - has galvanized interest.
"People are always interested in American politics because of the international role they play and it's such an important country in global politics."
That's become heightened by what she calls the "celebritization" of politics.
"Whether you like or don't like Donald Trump you can't help but say this is a really different election."
The event runs from 7 to 8:30 p.m. at the Bob Harkins branch.
