This word is about elections and voting. We put it in front of a noun to say “this belongs to the way people choose a leader by putting a mark on a paper, or on a machine.” An electoral system is the set of rules a country uses to count those marks. An electoral campaign is the weeks when parties try to win. Electoral reform is a plan to change the rules. Electoral fraud is cheating at the vote. You will hear it on the news, in textbooks, and from politicians; it sounds a little formal. At the dinner table people more often say “the election” or “voting.” In the United States you will also hear Electoral College — that is a special group who formally choose the president after the public vote, not a school. Though actually, the word does not mean “the people who vote” (that is the electorate) and it does not mean the event itself (that is the election). It only describes things that have to do with that event. Do not mix it up with electric, which is about power in wires; they only look a little alike.