The people you elect at the local, county, state and federal levels of government determine how much money your schools get, whether the roads are fixed when you hit a pothole, and the types of policies that affect your job security and access to healthcare. Voting and encouraging others to vote helps ensure that the people representing you have your interests at heart.
The President of the United States is not elected by direct popular vote but through a process called the Electoral College. Each state receives a number of electoral votes equal to the total number of U.S. Senators and members of the House of Representatives it has. So California, with 2 US Senators and 52 members of the House, gets 54 electoral votes. The “electors” (or representatives) then gather in their state capital and tally their votes for both the President and Vice President. The candidate who receives a majority of electoral votes is the winner.
This method of election is meant to ensure that smaller states are not over-powered by large cities with their own special interests, and that the President reflects the entire nation. It has worked well. Five times a Presidential candidate has won the popular vote but lost the Electoral College—Andrew Jackson in 1824, Samuel Tilden in 1876, Rutherford B. Hayes in 1876, Grover Cleveland in 1888, and Al Gore in 2000. Each time the Electoral College results were close enough to prompt a recount and a Supreme Court decision.