Popular vote means that people vote for the president directly and is the easiest way to decide. People vote and the amount of votes for candidates decides who the president is. This type of voting is common practice in most democratic countries around the world and doesn't have anything between the voters and the candidates.
The electoral college system means that people vote indirectly. They vote for who they would like to win and then the electors who are the prime voters give the votes to the president. This creates the opportunity for the electors to vote against the will of the people and these people are called faithless electors. This system is used in the United States.
There are two primary jurisdictions and numerous sub-jurisdictions.
The first is the Original jurisdiction.This is the jurisdiction in which the supreme court is the first court where you go when you have a problem and there are numerous cases where the supreme court would be the first stop in trying to solve your problem. This means that no lower courts participate in these cases. There are seven types of cases where original jurisdiction applies.
1. First is when there is a dispute between two states. If for example North and South Carolina have problems regarding trade between the two states or there are issues in territories which are shared by the two states, they go to the supreme court and the supreme court decides which state is right and which has to pay up.
2. Second is in disputes where one side is the United States and the other side is a civilian. These are the famous cases which often historically have been about interpretations of the constitution and they go to court usually when people believe that the United States government has in any way damaged them.
3. Third is disputes between civilians from other states. If a person from Texas was having problems with a person from Utah, the supreme court would have original jurisdiction because the two states have different laws to some degree and their individual state jurisdictions do not apply to people from other states.
4. Fourth is when a crime regarding a federal law is involved. This is similar to cases where people go against the government but in these cases there is crime involved. A person usually commits a federal crime and can go to the supreme court. Sometimes even the government can commit something that can be understood as a federal crime.
5. Fifth is habeas corpus laws. Habeas corpus cases deal with false imprisonment. If a person has been imprisoned and believes that it's been an illegal imprisonment they can go to the supreme court and the supreme court can give an order for those people to be released if they really had been unlawfully imprisoned.
6. Sixth is bankruptcy. Cases regarding bankruptcy can be solved by the supreme court, especially when determining how much is owed or to whom or who is at fault for the bankruptcy. This is usually regarding big companies or anything similar since personal bankruptcy cases are too small to be considered by the supreme court sometimes.
7. Seventh deals with international trade disputes. For example, if the government made a trade agreement with someone else and the trade agreement is bad for the United States and the people, then the supreme court can intervene and they can cancel the trade deal if it is proven that it was bad for the country.
The second big jurisdiction is the appellate jurisdiction. Here, the Supreme Court does not have original jurisdiction which means that the cases came from lower courts. It is the highest appeal court of the country and if a lower court has made a mistake then the supreme court can decide what needs to be done if you decide to appeal.
